Stalemate Unresolved
by Gregory E. Lacy
Summary: SPOILERS for Portal 2. GlaDOS is not corrupt prior to the core transfer. All three of them are stuck in her chamber without any way to hurt or kill one another... and all of the cake is gone. Plot failure ensues!
1. Chapter 1

**STALEMATE UNRESOLVED**

**Author's Notes: **All right, I've been thinking. -Cave Johnson voice-

If you played Portal 2 by now _and _completed it, you should know by now how the core transfer thing went. Even if you didn't, I prefer _not _to just tell you out right and let you see for yourself on YouTube. _This _story is going to revolve around the event that GlaDOS was not corrupt prior to the confrontation between her, Chell, and Wheatley. Up to this point, I _still _have no actual idea of how she ended up being labeled as corrupt in the first place, but if you guys have any idea on how that worked, please let me know in the review section. Thank you!

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><p>Chell had always knew that sometimes, GlaDOS's lying was very obvious.<p>

In those instances, both of them knew it, even as the AI attempted to cover them up with just plain and illogical reasoning. At first, it had angered the test subject to no end that it seemed like GlaDOS was treating her as an incredibly stupid person. It was all too clear that she had survived her supposed death through resourceful thinking, survival tactics, and an overall stubborn will to live on. Yet, the mechanical goddess continued to taunt and insult her about her so-called birth parents abandoning her on a doorstep as well as her own self being unlikable by everyone. In truth, as it progressed, it was becoming stale _very. Very. Quickly._

But now, having recently touched down into a black-box room with nothing but a door in front of her as the only escape route, Chell was looking at a sign on said door that made every one of GLaDOS's previous pathetic tries of deception look like a far cry. She had to look down for a moment, raising her free hand and planting it onto her face out of what seemed like embarrassment for her arch-nemesis. It was just so ridiculous, even more so than that so-called final "test chamber" that was offered for her prior to her escape to the bowels of Aperture. Even _Wheatley_, the babbling Personality Core who had a knack for being clueless, laughed at it! If he were here right now, he would've gotten a laugh out of reading what was on the sign.

**GlaDOS Emergency Shutdown and Cake Dispensery.**

A quiet sigh escaped Chell, and she lowered her hand from her face to stare at the door with a tired look. What was inside of the room was nothing more than a booby-trap that she would have to fight her way out of. Still, if she wanted to go _anywhere_ and escape this solitary confinement, she would have to go straight through it and face down what was waiting for her on the other side. Hopefully, it would only be turrets she would have to deal with and _not _neurotoxin emittors. She reached for the handle of the door, turning it and pulling it towards her.

Her eyes widened slightly at the door as it bumped and leaned onto her head. Then, realizing the state Aperture had been in the first place, she stepped aside naturally to allow the door to fall onto the ground. She turned her head to look into the room-

-and her heart stopped.

There _was _no room.

The door had been propped up against nothing but a wall identical to the ones around her. As the door fell onto the ground, cameras propped up on mechanical arms came through to her via the opening panels on the wall. Their lenses fell onto her shocked form, and _her _voice came through to the woman's ears. "I honestly, truly didn't think you would fall for that." She said calmly, the hint of victory seeping within her autotoned voice. "In fact, I designed a much more elaborate trap for when you got past this one..."

The cameras retreated back into the panels, and the walls off to her side began to close in on Chell. Her entire body tensed up, and she switched her gaze from wall to wall frantically as they both created a much smaller space for her. "If I knew you were going to let yourself get captured this easily, I would've just dangled a turkey leg from a rope on the ceiling." Chell could practically hear the laughter within that sentence, and she gritted her teeth out of frustration. It wasn't too long before she was zeroed in her surroundings, the orange portal she had entered the room through still too high for her reach.

It had been obvious from the beginning, but she had to admit it – she had _not _been expecting what she had just witnessed.

No matter how she _hated _that fact, the master AI had every right to gloat because of it.

Maybe there was still hope for GlaDOS in that department, after all.

Chell didn't get much time to think about the quality of the machine's deceptive nature, however. A startled yelp escaped her as she found herself falling through the opening floor down to a relaxation chamber conveniently placed below her. Once she landed onto her feet, the ceiling closed itself off. The chamber itself began to move forward towards what seemed like another wall, only that it was slowly opening to the room. Chell began to feel a sense of despair creep through her, her legs turning to jello and unable to support her. She fell to her knees, looking through the glass in front of her in defeat. Was _this _really the result of the effort that she had put through, the strain she had forced on herself to get this far?

GlaDOS's confident words were not helping. As the "doors" opened, she could see the menacing form of her enemy hanging high above the ceiling, her orange optic staring directly into her eyes. "I hope you brought something stronger than a Portal gun this time. Otherwise, I'm afraid you're about to be the _past _President of the _Being Alive _club. Ha ha. Seriously, though..."

Chell's head immediately snapped up at the sound of mechanical gears turning above her. She looked up just in time to see pincers lower five turrets to surround the relaxation chamber. She couldn't help but let out a moan of dread, dropping the Portal gun to cover her ears with her hands. It was some vain attempt at blocking out the imminent pain that was to come. The bullets would tear through her flesh, and she would be nothing but a bloody mess on the floor. Her heart began to race madly within her ribcage, and her breathing became slightly hitched. She was scared, and she wasn't concerned with hiding that fear from her enemy. They both knew that she was trapped.

"Good-bye..."

"**It's my big chance!"**

Wait a minute.

Chell's eyes snapped open at the sound of a boisterous, mechanical voice. She lowered her hands to do a double-take. Instead of the white turrets that had been the very bane of her existence, she was staring into the red optics of turrets that had their casings ripped off from their bodies. One of the turrets was still in its box! She mentally slapped herself – of course! She had effectively rendered the turret production line useless by replacing the master turret with a defective one! This was certainly the advantage of fore-sight. If these had been the regular turrets, her journey would've ended right then and there.

And now...

_Clickclickclickclick!_

"**This is trouble..." **

As the talking turret attempted to fire, the cache within itself registered as completely empty. Then, without warning, that turret caught fire and exploded, shattering the glass. The turret in front of her followed suit and exploded immediately. Now, with the front turret out of the way, she could clearly see GlaDOS's optic stare at the remaining two turrets.

"**Here it comes, pal! Locked and loaded!"**

_Clickclickclickclick!_

"**Aw, this ain't good..."**

_BOOM!_

And with that, the remaining two turrets exploded. Chell once again found the notion to slowly stand up, picking up her Portal gun and holstering it at her side. A small smile decked her across the face. What was the machine to do, now that she saw that her personal army was being thrown into the incinerator and smashed to pieces in place of the defective turrets? She waited for the response.

Of course, GlaDOS wasn't going to reveal her shock to her foe. "Oh... you were busy back there..." She commented in an apathetic manner, turning away from Chell for a moment. "Well... I suppose we could just sit here and glare at each other until someone drops dead. But I have a better idea..." Once the optic turned onto Chell, and the test subject's head snapped towards a large vacuum pipe crawling towards the relaxation chamber. "It's your old friend, deadly neurotoxin. If I were you, I'd take a deep breath... and hold it."

This time, Chell didn't even have to take long to know what was coming.

This time, she didn't bother to hide the smirk.

_CRASH!_

The barrel of the pipe smashed into the wall of the relaxation chamber, and instead of the neurotoxin that would've killed her outright...

"Ow! Agh! Oof! Gah! Oah!"

Upon the sounds of grunting and yelping, GlaDOS raised herself up to peer at the pipe in what seemed like confusion, her optic tracking down a certain object going through the path. However, Chell looked up at the barrel in relief. She moved herself out of the way, and a certain blue-eyed Personalty Construct popped out of the end. It rolled across the floor, its heavy weight colliding with the fragile barrier and shattering her glass prison completely.

"Hello!" Wheatley announced cheerfully, rolling to a stop right beside the chamber.

"...I hate you so much."

GlaDos was now staring at the duo with contempt. But it was mostly directed at the now-smug Chell as she used the Portal gun to pick Wheatley off of the ground. The core rolled his own optic to the back of his head so that he could see GlaDOS. "Ah HA!" He declared triumphantly, taking in every bit of the seething feeling radiating off of her. "And there goes the big, bad, and mean old woman! Whatcha gonna do without your bloody neurotoxin and your good turrets? _Watcha gonna do?_" The core was now spinning around in the Portal Gun's manipulation field, unable to hide the excitement and triumph he felt at having an advantage over what had formerly been something much more powerful than the both of them. But now, she was powerless and helpless to stop them!

"...all right, you little moron."

That caught both Wheatley and Chell by surprise at the suddenly relaxed manner GlaDOS was speaking in. Was she actually admitting defeat? Usually, she would've continued to try and try again to stop them from reaching their goal, even if it took measures more desperate than usual. It was supposed to be a good sign. However, Chell was feeling a bit apprehensive as GlaDOS continued to speak, fearing that they had still yet to climb out of the fire. "You've managed to disable my primary weapons against you. Congratulations. Now that you have me right where you want me, what do you intend to do?"

…..oh, boy.

Chell immediately looked around the room that they were in. GlaDOS hadn't lied when she said she had caught on to her little tricks. There were no portal surfaces within the room, and no incinerator. In addition, there were no new Personality Cores hooked onto the body. In addition, Chell couldn't use the portal gun on GlaDOS to just teleport parts of her body off of her due to her own alloy being resistant to the portals. In all honesty, she was better off attempting to hurt the massive construct with her bare hands than anything else! A rather helpless look fell on her face, and she immediately switched her stare to Wheatley's blue optic. He had brought them this far into the plan, so surely he had an idea to take the tyrant down-

"Oh... so, you're still thinking about that too, huh? Ehehe..."

…..and there went that idea.

Chell could do nothing but stare at her comrade in disbelief as he continued to explain, although he himself was getting embarrassed and ashamed due to the look he was receiving. "W-well, uhm... remember when I said that I hadn't completely planned this through? Well...this... is where our plans... end. I have _no _idea what we're supposed to do now..." Sheepishly, he laughed, attempting vainly to put some humor into their situation.

"Oh... now this is just an embarrassment." GlaDOS commented coolly, staring at the both of them. Her words had regained their apathetic mood once more. "I go through all of the trouble to put you out of your misery... only to find out that you came up here with no idea on how to kill me... _again_. In addition, thanks to your violent behavior, I can't end your life any faster than time itself. We're at an impasse. I would've expected this from the moron-"

"Hey!" Wheatley shouted indignantly, flipping back around to glare at GlaDOS. Of course, it didn't' have much of an effect on the construct. "I may have came across a little...planner's block... in my line of thinking, but I am _not _a _moron_!" His irritation only increased when GlaDOS decided to promptly ignore him and continue speaking to Chell.

"-but I never would've expected this idiocy from you, murderer." Instinctively, Chell tensed up, a scowl clear on her face as she glared at the hypocrite monstrosity. "But look on the bright side. At least now you won't have to do any more testing from here on out. So I suppose that this can be considered the closest thing to your so-called freedom. At least you tried, and that's what cou-"

_THUNK._

Chell had lost whatever patience she had in dealing with the female android, dropped Wheatley ("H-hey, what are you doing?") onto the floor, picked him up with one of her hands, and threw him straight at GlaDOS's head.

"OW!"

The two AI let out shouts of pain as they collided into each other, Wheatley collapsing onto the floor. The rebound caused him to bounce off of GlaDOS and roll back towards Chell's direction. "Hey! Come on, now! I may be a machine, but that _hurt_!" He cried. "I don't treat _you _like some sort of ball that can be thrown around in any direction that you want it, too!"

He abruptly stopped there, eye optic shifting around for a moment.

"Ok... maybe during that container scene, but I was only trying to get you out of there! It wasn't for my own personal amusement to see you thrash about in that small and crappy hotel room! I mean, sure you're nothing but a smelly human...ok, wait, that didn't mean to come out- waitwaitwaitno-!"

_THUNK._

"OW- now, you're just being childish." GlaDOS grumbled, jerking back as Wheatley once again slammed into her and rolled back, repeatedly begging for Chell's mercy. "This is only annoying me to no end and hurting your friend. Just stop now and preserve whatever shred of dignity you have le-"

_THUNK._

"W-why me~?"

"...I'm going to kill you both as slowly as possible once things get back into order."


	2. Chapter 2

**STALEMATE UNRESOLVED**

**Author's Notes: **I look at my reviews section and see six of them, right off of the bat after I posted this story. I look into my e-mails and see double the amount of reviews and subscriptions. I punch those numbers into a calculator, it makes a happy face. :D

But, seriously guys. Thanks for the vote of confidence and the immediate attention drawn onto this story. I'm going to be honest; it's going to be quite hard, as I haven't done this in a while. But, I'mma do my best and give you guys a good laugh. I hope you all enjoy this next chapter! Please continue to review, too!

Oh, and on another note: since the end of Portal 2, I was considering changing the fates of the Portal 1 Personality cores so that they would be featured in this story, reference or otherwise.

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><p><em>Thunk!<em>

It had been a good five minutes... and Chell hadn't stopped using Wheatley as a throwing club for GlaDOS. Five minutes ago, Chell would've been doing so just to spite the female machine. However, now she had taken to dropping the Portal gun completely and using both hands to toss the Personality Core into various parts of GlaDOS's body. Then, once Wheatley bounced off of her and rolled back to Chell, she would grab him and hurl him again. Her body was tensed up in concentration, eyes furrowed. It was her very own way to relieve the boredom creeping into the chamber, now that both of them were strategically frozen.

_Thunk!_

Wheatley had his own ideas to relieve his boredom.

He had went from begging Chell to stop to mumbling incoherent and clearly manic jibberish, his pupil shrunken and shivering constantly. By the time the woman was done treating him like a basketball, he was going to be traumatized for the rest of his 1.1-volt life. Maybe he could go talk to the Morality Core after he and Chell found a way out of here. She always did her best, serving as the "mother" for the rest of the constructs. She always knew how to counsel someone in the worst times. Heck, come to think of it, _she _had been the reason why he had _not _gone insane from the stressful watching all ten thousand of those test subjects!

And GlaDOS?

_Thunk!_

Well, she was fighting to stay calm...well, as calm as she could while a Personality Core the size of her head was smacked repeatedly into her core, courtesy of the mute lunatic.

But she had to face facts; she was stuck with a mute monster and a moron, both of which had been trying to give her a second way to die. One of them had caused her to go into a hundred-year-old coma and forced her to re-live her own death again-

_Thunk!_

-and again-

_Thunk!_

-and again. But apparently, death didn't satisfy the monstrosity in orange, did it? Now she had to go and use this situation to _torture _her. What had GlaDOS done to deserve this? Well... besides attempting to send the test subject to an infernal demise... and call her fat... and saying her birth parents hated her... and that she was left on a doorstep as an infant-

_Thunk!_

Ok, fine, so there was a good list right there.

But, still, she didn't deserve this!

"Look..." She struggled to say while keeping her apathetic and glib tone. "I know we had fun antagonizing each other – _THUNK! - _in the past, but I think it's time for both ofus to act like mature, intelligent beings and – _THUNK! _- oh, for the love of... **_STOP NOW OR I WILL KILL YOU!_**" The last words were spoken with a violent roar, and the machine itself seemed to shake violently with the spike of anger erupting to the surface. The immediate effect that it had was Wheatley being shaken out of his traumatized state and snapped his shrunken pupil to gaze at her fearfully as he was once again picked up by Chell.

"W-wait!" He protested, now turning his pleadings towards the furious AI. "I-I couldn't control my motor functions, she was the one hurling me at you! Please don't kill me and send me to Android Hell! I'm too young, and I haven't even sent my grievance letter in order to sue that prejudice wanker Jerry with! When I win all of the money he's got-" He stopped abruptly, closing his eye and nodding in a confident manner. "-and oh yes, I'm going to take every cent from him and rub it in his face, that puny piece of scrap metal... _then _you can kill me." After that, he resumed his terrified demeanor. "B-b-but please, not now! I beg of your mercy!"

His shaking eye glanced up at Chell, and a realization flashed in his head.

"O-on an additional thought, don't kill her, either! The bloody woman has _brain _damage, for crying out loud! She doesn't know what she's doing, and she wouldn't know what Android Hell is if it reached up and bit her right in her fat rolls!"

….and now both GlaDOS _and _Chell were staring at him with a look that said, "I'm going to smash every circuit in your body. (For the seond time in GlaDOS's case) That made him even more terrified, and Chell could feel all of his gyros shaking as he continued to babble. "Ah-I mean, her nicely curved and filled in rolls that would p-practically pull all of the guys in! Y-you know that song, don't you? My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard~-"

"Moron."

"...y-yes, ma'am?"

"Shut up. I'm already considering holding you over the incinerator and making _cake _out of you. I think it would be best for you if you _don't_ convince me to make the wrong decision."

"...ok..." Wheatley squeaked. "But, please remember that she's mentally impaired...a-and doesn't know any better..."

GlaDOS said nothing in return. However, she did focus her gaze onto Chell, glaring particularly at the fact that she was grinning widely. "Oh... so you're finding amusement in aggravating me?" She resentfully deadpanned. "Obviously, you've forgotten that this is _my _world and not yours." A small satisfaction came when she saw the test subject's amused look fade away, replaced by what seemed like an upset expression. "It would be so easy to pick you up with one of my pincers and just crush your head into a million pieces. But sadly, that would leave yet another mess that I would have to clean up later, and I prefer to manage the trash only if I have to- what are you doing?"

Before GlaDOS had been able to finish her brutal evaluation on their situation, Chell had once again dropped Wheatley ("Oh, you have got to be _joking_!") and staggered back a little. On stopping, she had crossed her legs and tapped one of her feet against each other. A blush had come across her face, and she held an embarrassed look, ashamed to look the massive AI in the eye and suddenly interested in the black tiles that made up the floor. If it was possible, GlaDOS would've rolled her eyes at the antics of the girl.

"Oh, humans and their inefficient waste disposal systems..." She muttered. Then, her words took on false enthusiasm once more. "Tell you what... why don't you just use that Relaxation Chamber I had you trapped in? I'll even pull it back and close it behind you so that you have privacy. It's the _least _I could do after all the good things that you've done for _me_..." That caused Chell's face to take on one of alarm, and she raised her head up to stare tersely into the orange optic. "Oh, come on. There's absolutely nothing I can do to you since you've destroyed my primary killing tools, and I'm not the slightest bit interested in observing how the human body dispenses unnecessary products."

After a few seconds, Chell decided that, at least in this moment, defying the android would actually lead to her _own _misfortune. She whipped around and sprinted back into the Relaxation Chamber, stopping once she got inside. Without a word, GlaDOS pushed the entire chamber back into the wall and sealing it off behind her. Now, at least for a moment, she wouldn't have to deal with that monstrosity harassing her and she could have a bit of peace to herself.

"Oi... what's going on now? I can't see a thing... where did that lady go?"

Sadly, she still had to deal with the babbling buffoon that lay on his "face".

"She had to go use the bathroom, moron." The female construct said, annoyed. "Then again, I should've guessed you wouldn't know where someone went even if they walked from one room to another with you watching them the whole time..."

"That's _not _true!" Wheatley protested indignantly, attempting to push himself into a position where he could see. "And _why _are you insisting on calling me a moron? Obviously, one of the factors that got the both of us to where we are right now is my _vast_-" He emphasized this with another closing and slow, vertical moving of his eye optic. "-intelligence... because, you know, I'm the one who came up with the idea of shutting down the neurotoxin and turret line..."

"Thank you for telling me that." GlaDOS said sweetly. "Now I have a reason to make your death twice as painful."

"W-wait, WHAT?" Of course, the bragging arrogance that came across Wheatley had regressed back to a meek and panicked state under her malevolent statement. "Nononono, you don't need to do _that, _there's no need for that, I was just ki—wait a minute..." Without warning, he fell out of his panic to exchange it for a more confused state. "Do you smell that?"

"Don't change the subject-"

"No, no, I'm serious! I smell something... has a rather dirty odor to it, and-"

The panic returned.

Wheatley immediately began jerking around and writhing about in a violent manner. "UGH! OH, GOD!" He shouted. "WHAT IS THAT HORRIBLE SMELL? IT'S JUST LIKE I'M BACK IN THE TEST SUBJECT MANAGEMENT AGAIN! IT'S BURNING MY SENSORS~! AAAAAAAGH, IT SMELLS SO BAD~!" It was one of the times where being able to smell came at a very serious price... and that _had _to be paid _now_, of all times? Wasn't it bad enough that he had been used as a basketball by his only ally? Fate must've had something against him!

It took only a second for GlaDOS to realize what he was ranting about. "Oh, my fault..." She commented, though she didn't put any effort to assure him that she actually meant it. "I guess I should've put the Relaxation Chamber farther back. It was just a miscalculation in positioning, that's all. Don't worry... it'll fade over time..." Unfortunately for Wheatley, this served as yet another opportunity for GlaDOS to find a way to punish him for his insolence. Once she killed Chell, she could stick Wheatley right next to the body and watch him take in the _wonderful _scents that decomposition could give to someone's nose.

"I-I'm going to short-circuit..."

And _then_ she would kill him, of course.

"_Your business is appreciated!"_

….why did Aperture even have that function for the toilets? GlaDOS wasn't a human, but she could safely assume that voices coming from waste deposits would be marked as "frightening", "disturbing", and "downright creepy". It was one of the many reasons that she disposed of certain turrets that did similar things. She could still remember that one turret that kept saying "Get mad!" and "Don't make lemonade!" to the test subjects instead of "Dispensing product." and the promptly shooting them down. Maybe the voice commands had just went haywire on that one...

She turned her attention to the wall opening back up, her orange optic falling back onto the woman heading out of the Relaxation Chamber. Not surprisingly, she looked a little bit disturbed as she came out, almost in a hurry to scramble away from the toilet. "Welcome back, [subject name here]. No, you didn't miss anything while you were away. Nothing important, anyway..." She lapsed into silence, watching Chell as she sat down on the floor beside the fallen Wheatley, placed the Core onto her lap and rested her arms on the top of his "head". There was a moment of silence between the three, and they simply wasted the time by looking at each other without saying a word.

Well, at least no one was saying anything stupid.

"So...uh..."

Ok, she spoke too soon.

Fortunately, Wheatley had directed his attention to Chell again, in what was looking like a poor attempt to start up a conversation with her. "How was the... waste disposal... going for you? Did you get _cleaned out _real good, because the Aperture toilets can do that, you know? You can just sit right back down, do whatever you need, and just stand right back up. Really efficient way to get on with your life, no hands-on experience require-"

_THUMP. _A fist to the side of his head made him realize that he was babbling again. "R-right... shutting up now..."

"Look..." GlaDOS droned. "As much as I'm loving this pointless conversation, there's science to be done. Orange and Blue have yet to finish their own series of tests, and because I was focusing so much on you two, I completely forgot about their progress. I guess it's time to see how they're coming along..." Upon a mental command, part of the wall tiles started to shift themselves. Wheatley and Chell looked up in surprise to see what appeared to be a large television screen switched off.

"I hope you two enjoy watching others go through the same thing you did, because this is the only entertainment you'll be getting for a while."

The screen flickered on... and GlaDOS practically hit the ceiling at what she saw.

One of the pipes had spilled a massive amount of repulsion gel onto a wide space. Blue (also known as Atlas) was currently bouncing up and down on the gel, doing flips, poses, cartwheels, and other acrobatic stuff that one was capable of doing while in the air. But _he _wasn't the only one – alongside him, there were a few turrets bouncing up and down, squealing in excitement as they were propelled into the air by the gel.

"Wheee!"

"Hooray!"

"I'm flying!"

"Glorious freedom!"

"Good-bye!"

"What the- Blue!" GlaDOS snapped. "What do you think you are doing? Stop it! That repulsion gel is _not _your very own personal toy, and those turrets are _not _your playmates-" However, she was cut off with the visual of Orange (also known as P-Body) walking up to a "cliff" overlooking the pit before proceeding to jump in and bounce with Blue. "No! Both of you get back to work or I _will_-"

As GlaDOS scolded and threatened her cybernetic test subject duo, Wheatley could only stare at the display in empathy. His eyelid crinkled. "I _really _think we should be joining them right about now." He muttered in disappointment. "Anything would be better than sitting here... without a plan... and with your worst enemy..."

Chell nodded in agreement.

"Speaking of which, is there any possible way that you could, y'know, turn off the potency in your odor when you go to the bathroom? I mean, the stench almost _killed_ me-"

_TWHACK._

"OW!"


	3. Chapter 3

**STALEMATE UNRESOLVED**

**Author's Notes: **Ok, for future reference, this story is going to be both on DeviantArt _and _. So for readers that come from one site or the other, you now have one more source just in case something happens to one of the websites (maintenance or whatnot). I say this not only for that reason, but in this note in particular, I will be referencing artists from DeviantArt just in case you don't know who in the world I'm talking about. That being said, I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoy writing it! And so far, I _really _love writing it!

Not to the extent of a certain "euphoria", mind you...

* * *

><p>Only a few minutes with Wheatley and Chell, and already GLaDOS felt like she was going insane.<p>

In the time that the cybernetic pair could've been using to pursue the results of science, their master had to forcibly disassemble and reassemble them back at their current checkpoint, gave a calm, pain-promising lecture for using test tools as their own personal toys, and sending them off again to actually complete the test. Of course, they weren't exactly pleased that their fun had been ruined. The turrets were particularly upset by the change of events, refusing to fire on the two even when they had came across the area again. Had Orange and Blue not figured out how to solve the test beforehand, GLaDOS would've had those very turrets sent _straight_ to redemption. Now, she was keeping a close eye on the two as they continued to maneuver their way through the test chambers.

Ok, strike that last statement. Not only did she feel like she was about to go insane, she also felt like she was dealing with two human _children_ instead of test subjects. Even the lunatic had not gone and done something as stupid as they had done, following her instructions to the letter. Except, of course, when the idiot had shut off the lights and pulled her to the backbone of the facility where there were no cameras lurking about. She really would have to go and fix that...

"Well, isn't _someone _being a nasty, old hag today?"

Immediately, GLaDOS snapped her head towards a cocky-toned Wheatley, who seemed to be looking at her in an amused manner. Her words, however, expressed that she wasn't phased by the insult directed towards her. "Well... maybe I wouldn't be in such a bad mood if a moron and a monster weren't stuck with me in my chambers, standing around and being useless. I wouldn't be in such a _worse _mood, considering that I can't _do _much about you being useless. In addition, the lack of conflict is causing this meeting to be a lot less tense...and a _lot. More. Dull. _And some of us take the feeling of boredom harder than others."

Her eye then fell onto Chell, who was now staring at her with her own bored expression. It was a nonverbal agreement with GlaDOS's feelings at that very moment. Both were bored, their tension and hostility towards each other fading because of it. "Well... if it didn't involve risking you getting ideas to murder me, I would use your obesity as an excuse for my own personal amusement." If she had a mouth, she would've smirked at the alarmed and indignant expression that came across the test subject's countenance. "I could just level a slope in one of my testing chambers, push you over, and watch you roll down to the bottom. Then, I could pick you up, place you at the top, and do it _all _over again. Of course, you may experience dizziness, nausea, and vomiting from being rolled down a hill so many times. But, think of it this way; every time vomiting is induced, you're becoming less fatter! So you can consider this a new way to diet."

Oh boy, if looks could kill, GLaDOS would be reduced to nothing but atoms with the withering glare Chell was giving her right now. Traditionally, GLaDOS paid no fearful attention to it. However, Wheatley, who was still resting in her lap, had looked up at her in alarm. He had _no _intention of once again being used as an anger releasing device against the master AI courtesy of his friend! He already was sore thanks to the first time! If she did it again, this time he could possibly break! His fear only heightened when she grabbed him by the sides and stood up once more. He had to do something!

"U-uhm, look, uh..." He began shakily. "Instead of using me as a way to hurt _her, _h-how about we do something less painful? I-in fact, I have an idea that would be _that..._" He paused for a moment to think, before nodding his optic excitedly. "...and something fun for all three of us, once I get everything set up..." It was working; the anger in Chell's face immediately diminished, and she cocked an eyebrow at him. GLaDOS was taken back by the offer too, and of course she voiced her skepticism for everyone to hear.

"And what could _you _possibly do?"

Wheatley looked around the room for a moment, shifting his optic to the back of the room. "Hmmm... tell you what, plug me into that receptacle over there, and I'll show you what's gonna go down?" He suggested to Chell. Now curious, the woman walked over to what appeared to be a closed-off hole. However, upon approach, it opened up, and a podium-like structure with knobs and handles arose to the surface. On the right of it, an outlet stood clear above everything else – obviously one of the spots where Personality Cores such as Wheatley could work at. With slight difficulty, Chell hefted Wheatley up and placed him onto the outlet, where he then proceeded to plug himself in.

"I do hope your idiotic brain is capable of realizing that the files linking to that network are password-protected." GLaDOS piped in. "I was given direct access to them, but because of the...well... incident... I wasn't given the password in order to freely lock them and unlock them at my leisure." It didn't seem to phase the blue-eyed core any, and he simply laughed off the comment.

"Ha! Well, I do believe the ones who made those little barricades failed to realize that _I _am a hacker extraordinare _and _genius decker! I shall hack their firewalls, destroy their cyber minions, and access the buried treasure within!" He declared. "It's fortunate for you two that I have experience within this type of field. I will only need a moment of time to decipher these codes and give us all the reward we so rightfully deserve, no thank yous needed. Now, then..."

His eye widened for a moment, and his gyro's froze in place. "Let's start with this. OPEN... SESAME!"

_ERRRRRNNNNNT!_

"Oh, for the love of God..." GLaDOS muttered, lowering her head down and directing her gaze away from him in an expression of embarrassment. Chell rolled her eyes and let out an annoyed sigh, clearly knowing how this would go. Of course, Wheatley's obliviousness allowed him to successfully ignore them both.

"Fair enough!" He exclaimed, temporarily coming out of his frozen state to openly express his stubbornness. "I see that their password is a bit tricky and complex, but it's no match for the master of hacking! Let's see them try to force _this _out! A, A, A, A, A...A!"

_ERRRRRNNNNNT!_

"Yeah, that's not it... A,A,A,A,A...B!"

_ERRRRRNNNNNT!_

Chell couldn't help herself. She slapped both hands to her face in a mixture of frustration, pity, and embarrassment for the core as he attempted to hack the terminal. He really _was _a moron. _No _one in their right state of mind would put a password starting with the same letters. She was certainly no technician herself, but it was just common sense! If Wheatley continued doing so in this manner, this would take _years _before they even got past the first firewall!

"Ok, this is a bunch of cow crap..." Wheatley snapped. "A, A, A, A, A, _C_!"

_ERRRRRNNNNNT!_

"Wait a minute!" The temporary frustration faded away and the core brightened up. "I've already done these! Just skip ahead, skip ahead... all right... A, B, C, D, G...uhm... H!"

GLaDOS sighed irritatedly. "When are you going to realize that you're just wasting all of our ti-"

_DING!_

"HA! It bloody worked! I have access to the linked files now!" Wheatley shouted in triumph. "I did it! I hacked!"

"..."

For one of the rare times in their life, GLaDOS and Chell was shocked speechless (well, at least in the terms of GLaDOS, considering Chell didn't speak). They stared at Wheatley blankly, at a complete loss for words. It was bad enough that GLaDOS had just been upstaged by nothing but a complete moron. But it was worse that there had been _someone _out there _in _Aperture Labratories who had designed such a ridiculous password for such sensitive data. Now, she was hoping that the neurotoxin had claimed that certain idiot's life so that he wouldn't plague any more systems with his idiocy. If he or she was one of the robots working in the facility... she'd make a personal note to dismantle them and put them on display so that other robots wouldn't follow his/her example.

Upon seeing their shocked faces, Wheatley's eye crinkled in a smirk. "And _you _thought I couldn't hack. Telling me "No, you moron, you can't hack", but I've proven you wrong! That'll teach you to underestimate my IQ!" He crowed, snapping GLaDOS out of her shock and into a more irritated mood. He may have proven her wrong... for once... but it would be another hundred years before she would take his arrogant boasting.

"Ok, you've proven your point..." She said apathetically, glaring at Wheatley. "Now, stop bragging and tell us if anything in those files is worth our time or not."

Still basking in his victory, said core merely rolled his eyes and huffed. "Spoiling all of the fun..." The lids immediately squinted in a look of concentration. "Let's see, let's see here... I'm looking in the folder that says "Aperture Staff Listings"... open that... takes me to a bunch of sub-folders with the staff member's names." He snickered. "There are two with our logo on it named...uhm... "Caroline"... and "Cave Johnson"... have fancy little designs on the folders to mark them from everyone else's."

….those names...

GLaDOS, upon hearing the words, pulled back and raised her head up in thought. Those names sounded so familiar to her... but where did they come from? She knew all of the staff by memory, but... those names seemed a bit too distant for her liking. It was like they were there in her head, and at the same time, they _weren't _there. Did she hold a personal grudge against them at some past point and then forgot about it?

She shook herself from the thoughts, directing her optic to stare down at Wheatley again. "Open the one named "Cave Johnson" first." She instructed.

"All right... it's open, and..." Wheatley paused for a moment, crinkling his optic in confusion. "Well... the first one I'm coming across is one file marked "Black Mesa"..." He shifted his gaze between the two females suspiciously. "Do you think... he was doing reconnaissance on them or something? Have a little spy sneak in, steal their stuff, and then bring it back to Aperture Science so they can build stuff revolving off of that? Of course-"

Immediately, he stopped shifting his gaze, and his pupil shrunk for a moment. "Th...then, that would mean...oh my God, WE'RE ALL FROM BLACK MESA~!" He ended his sentence in a wail, closing his eyes and shaking his optic in a woeful manner. "I'm so disgusted with myself, I want to crawl in a corner and shut down, nothing matters anymore-"

"_Moron_." GLaDOS growled, her patience thinning once more. "The_ files_. Open up Black Mesa."

"Oh! Yes, uhm... sorry..." The depression faded immediately, and Wheatley once again took to concentrating onto the folder he was browsing through. "Let's see... the first one is a video... entitled... 2...girls...1...cup. Huh...and all of the words are smushed together as if they were all one bloody word! Apparently, someone needs to catch up their grammar!"

A video, huh?

"Hold on for a moment..." GLaDos said, raising her head to stare up at the screen again. Her optic feasted itself on the two robots, and she spoke through her cameras. "Enjoy your next series of tests unsupervised. I have a bit of business to take care of at my main chamber, and it is going to take a while for me to address it." She rolled her optic when the two robots froze in their tracks, stared at each other for a moment, and let out a series of beeps that sounded like giggles. By the time she was done, she was going to have to clean up _another _mess that they happened to make while turning her test chambers into a playground.

She flickered the monitor to a stand-by mode, turning her attention back to Wheatley. "Bring it up. It's going to be on the main screen when you open it up."

"Right-O!" Once he clicked on it, the video slowly started to load itself. All three occupants of the room turned to look at the monitor, very interested in what would show up. Wheatley even squirmed with excitement, proclaiming, "Oh, this is going to be good! All my hacking work is about to pay off with this buried treasure!"

It only took a few seconds into the video for everyone to get their reactions.

"W-what are they-" Wheatley began to say, but was cut short upon seeing the scene transition from one bit to another. "...oh. Uh..." Unconsciously, he began to shiver, disturbia kicking in. His pupil shrunk once more, swaying back and forth as if attempting to wipe away the images. "Uh...uh...uh...uh..." He began to repeat this in a broken mantra, not bringing himself to say anything more. Yep... he was going to have to speak to the Morality Core definitely now.

Right beside him, Chell could never have felt so disgusted in her life. Her mouth was agape, her eyebrow was lifted, and her eyes were wide open in a clear expression of shock and horror. Her skin seemed to turn an even paler color than it already was, and her body was shaking slightly, fingers gripped onto the podium. Then, as the scene shifted again, her hands shot up to her mouth and she sprinted back to the Relaxation Chamber. The sounds of vomiting could be heard shortly after.

And GLaDOS?

"Really..." The android didn't seem the slightest bit disgusted by the appalling display. "I've seen much worse back in the testing chambers. The turrets can really go overboard sometimes, and the force of the bullets can just do their worst when they feel like it. It's just a matter of how you dispose your waste... although I didn't expect them to use it in such a manner on themselves..." She tilted her head to the side. "This Cave Johnson person must've been planning to send these to Black Mesa at some point as a "present". I admire his way of thinking about gifts..."

"_Your business is appreciated!"_

"...Moron."

"...y...yeah...?"

"...Please change that video to something else before I decide to destroy every single toilet within Aperture."


	4. Chapter 4

**STALEMATE UNRESOLVED**

**Author's Notes: **First off, I'd like to thank my readers for giving me suggestions, advice, and reasoning behind future actions of the story. I really appreciate the help you are offering me, and I will gladly take it into consideration if I'm able to fit it in with future content.

**P.S: **At the beginning of this story, there are hidden references to shock sites/images. See if you know which ones are which! In addition, there may be a bit more seriousness within this chapter as it goes deeper into the plot. Just a heads-up!

* * *

><p>GlaDOS's suggestion had not went well for Chell and Wheatley.<p>

After exiting the video, as well as taking a _long _time to recover from what they had seen, Wheatley had brought himself to move to the next file within the "Black Mesa" folder. The next files had _seemed _safe enough ("Breen's tub-by wife", "Goat Farm", and "These Combustible Lemons Will Burn _Anyone's _House Down!"). However, as Wheatley browsed through the three, they all had been subjected to the same mental torture again and again. GLaDOS was virtually unaffected by the horrifying displays, as she had seen _much _worse at how her flesh-and-blood test subjects died in their miserable failures to complete her tests. So, after it was all over, she simply found it all to be a complete waste of her time.

Unfortunately, the two had not shared the same sediments.

Chell was now lying on her side, eyes rolled into the back of her head and drool coming from the corner of her mouth. She had a permanent expression of trauma on her countenance, and her body was twitching at occasional intervals. Wheatley wasn't better off; after he had involuntarily disconnected himself from the receptacle, his circuits literally short-circuited, and he was now offline. His blue optic was not visible, replaced by a blank blackness. The occasional electrical spark that surged through his body from where GLaDOS had initially crushed him was still flickering, his core body twitching along with Chell's. Had they not been moving, GLaDOS would've assumed them to be already dead.

It seemed that they _both _shared the ability of being near-unkillable, at least by _her _actions.

But now, this was where they were at their least vulnerable. Although the AI's primary weapons were effectively neutralized, everything else was still operational. She could always find some unconventional method of ending their lives. From using the moving panels to crush their bodies with to transporting Weighted Storage Cubes to their positions and drop them right on their heads. Heck, since the Weighted Companion Cubes were so plentiful, she could gather one of _those _and smash the test subject's head in. It would be a rather ironic way to die, and that thought pleased her the most about the idea.

"_The Enrichment Center reminds you that the Weighted Companion Cube will never threaten to stab you and, in fact, cannot speak.__"_

Oh, how wrong she would be after she was done...

But first, the more important matters needed to be tended to at that point. Later on, she would once again access the files and look more into the information concerning the staff. It was to sate an urge that had buried itself within her and grew the moment the names "Cave Johnson" and "Caroline" had been spoken. She couldn't understand why she held a sense of familiarity with them, and it _refused _to leave her be! What had been _their_ connection to her, if any? Had _they_ existed in the time that she had been created? She _had _to find out, she just _had _to!

…maybe monitoring Orange and Blue could wait a little longer.

Immediately, she switched the monitor back on, now that she had direct access to the database thanks to Wheatley. Exiting out of the Black Mesa folder, she came across another one beside it entitled "Subject Logs". It had a tiny lock icon on it, indicating that it was locked to a certain party. However, when she high-lighted it, the lock seemed to disappear. This made her slightly suspicious. Were the files _meant _to be opened by her at some point? Doing her best to shake off the feeling, she opened them up and clicked on the first log. It would show her what had happened at the very beginning, and she needed all of the information available.

_Accessing data log 1._ _Aperture Fixtures, 1943..._

* * *

><p>True to their nature, Orange and Blue had decided to take a little "break" from their testing.<p>

After applying some cleverness to one of the situation, Orange had stopped them in one of the test chambers and pointed out a perfect opening; a small crack in one of the vacuum pipes that led down to the turret manufacturing levels. Underneath was a portable surface. In another section of the chamber that they were in, two more portal surfaces were closed to each other and fixed in a horizontal position, with one almost on top of the other. While Blue stood on top of the ground surface, Orange created two portals on each one to make him fall in an infinite loop. Then, she ran over to the crack in the vacuum pipe and replaced the ceiling portal. The combined momentum had caused Blue to smash through the glass and suck them both into the vent, where they allowed the strong current to take them all around the facility.

On their unofficial journey, they had passed the turret redemption lines... with some necessary and unnecessary stops.

Orange, upon seeing all of the destroyed turrets, hung her "head" down in what appeared to be mourning and a customary moment of silence. In some of their tests, the pair had been required to send the machines to their deaths, having to endure their pained protests as they were incinerated and exploded. They had been deemed as nothing but pawns in the testing, doomed to maintain a steady, eternal guard of Aperture Laboratories and expected to be nothing less than killing machines. There wasn't much they could do about it, and there was no use crying over spilled milk. Still, who could stop them from sympathizing with the fallen?

Blue had other ideas.

The turret-bodied machine snapped up in surprise once she heard Blue's grunting beeps and chirps. He had leaped onto the turret line, looking over towards the other side. Turning towards her, he gave an eager motion to follow him before continuing to jump from line to line. She, in turn, rolled her optic and followed him. However, she was careful not to step on the remnants of what had been their programmed killers.

Blue was acting in a carefree manner, naturally leaping from line to line. Out of the pair, and up through this point in time, he was the most brave and headstrong. GLaDOS had said to them before that they both didn't know fear. But Blue was the one that expressed it the most, even in situations where it looked so hopeless. They didn't have to worry about death due to their capability of being re-assembled... but _he _was the one who could stand in front of it and laugh in its face. That was the quality she liked. It always made him as well as her unstoppable, untouchable, and invincible.

Dare she say it... maybe even GLaDOS couldn't stop them.

It wasn't long before they reached a catwalk below. Blue was the first to leap off of it, his metal feet clanging and shaking it as he landed. He stepped aside to allow Orange space to land on, keeping his eye on her the whole time. She paused for a moment to study where the catwalk was before jumping, landing cleanly on her own feet. When she raised her optic, she found herself staring into the curious gaze of her partner. After a few moments of studying, Blue nodded and turned back around to follow the catwalk's path. Orange followed right behind him...

….but she stopped once he placed out a wired hand in front of her. At first, she was initially confused, giving a whirr to emphasize that. However, once she looked past him, she could see why he had suddenly tensed up.

A lone turret was sitting on the catwalk, facing them with a red, blinking laser pointed straight at Blue's core.

But it didn't fire.

Blue gave a beep that what would've been the equivalent to a human's "Huh" as it stepped closer and closer to the turret. It wasn't reacting to them at all, simply staring at them as they approached. With every step, the pair was feeling more and more at ease. Maybe it was just another malfunctioning turret that happened to be placed here? If that was the case, then it would probably get sent to redemption as soon as it was discovered. Knowing that there wasn't much they could do, they began to walk past the turret.

It spoke.

"Wait!"

They froze in their tracks, optics snapping towards the turret in surprise. Orange took the initiative and approached it once more, but this time stopping in front of it. It bent down a little, giving a questioning chirp. She wasn't taken off-guard by the fact that it spoke to them, considering that although the test turrets were trying to kill them, they too had been also communicating with them. It was unmoving, but the voice expressed a pleading emotion to it.

"Please...take me with you...I'm different..."

...well, so much for not being able to do anything.

Orange stood back up and pointed her Portal gun at the turret, preparing to grasp it with its manipulation field and carry it. However, she was interrupted by a slight nudge from Blue. He raised a finger towards where they would've been going. In front of them was an Emancipation Grill, standing as clear as day. If they attempted to smuggle the turret out from their current area, the turret would be instantly destroyed. Orange immediately hung her head in depression once again, her optimism fading away. Her partner gave her a sympathizing hand on her shoulder, and she managed to lift her head again to nod at him. They would have to leave the turret behind to its fate, as they had always done. After straightening back up, Orange made to follow Blue once more.

However, another voice interrupted them, moderately high in pitch and feminine in tone.

"Hey! You two! What do you think you're doing down here!"

Both of the androids flinched, recognizing the sound of the voice. Slowly, they turned around and spotted what looked like a Personality Core moving towards them on its own management rail, the design identical to Wheatley's. Its optic was purple, glaring at them as if they had robbed its owner of something. That alone was enough to spin guilt within them, and they both looked like kids who had been caught doing something wrong. Of course, they weren't kids. But in the case of GLaDOS, they _were _doing something they shouldn't have been doing in the first place.

It was unfortunate that they had crossed paths before in similar situations.

But it was natural that Morality would be the one to catch them in the act.

"It's bad enough that I have to work my circuits off, trying to fix the damage caused by whatever that sabotaged the turret template readers..." She began, her voice irritated. "But this is the _third _time I find you waltzing down here – messing with the turrets heading towards redemption, of course! You're _very _lucky _she _didn't catch us down here, or she'd kill all three of us for messing around!"

Despite himself, Blue beeped sheepishly.

"W-wait a minute..." Abruptly, Morality's annoyance faded, and she looked at the two with surprise. "She allowed you to go through the tests... _unsupervised_?" She sighed, closing her optic and shaking her movement gyro sagely. "Sometimes, I wonder what exactly is going on in her head..." Once she opened her eye back up again, her stare was a bit exasperated. "Well... I suppose that since she's basically allowing you to do this, I can't drag you by the hand back up to the testing chambers, can I? In any case, you better hurry and get out of here before she finds out you're down here. As troublesome as you two are, I don't want you suffering her wrath anytime soon."

It was Orange's turn to intervene. Lifting a free hand, she immediately pointed a thumb behind her to indicate the blinking turret, who had opened up its side panels to direct its laser sight towards Morality. "Hello, Morality..." It spoke in its child-like, quiet voice.

"Oh, it's you, Ora!" Morality exclaimed. "Sorry about not noticing you in the crowd of troublemakers. I'll be right with you." She switched her gaze back down to Orange and Blue. "Now, what are you two waiting for? Hurry up and leave, make all of our lives easier for a cha-"

She was interrupted by a beep from Orange. "Huh...?" She first spoke softly out of surprise, before her tone hardened once more. "_No_. Absolutely _not_." She snapped. "I am _not _having you take whatever you please out of Turret Production, even if you've happened to make a friend with it!" That made the turret's laser temporarily switch off, and its side panels lowered in a look of sadness. But the Core didn't seem to notice "It's just not worth the ri-"

"_Memory template download complete." _The announcer voice cut her off, sounding out for everyone to hear it.

Morality let out a groan of aggravation. "Oh, give me a break, I thought I reset the data on that!" She griped, rolling her eye around out of frustration. "It just keeps feeding off of that defective turret up top, not listening to the primary link. I don't even know why I deal with stuff like-"

However, once her eye fell back onto the trio, she stopped herself. All of them were looking at her curiously, the guilt-ridden fear gone from their eyes. For a moment, she allowed herself to think. The solutions she had been applying to her problem had been all of the hardest. The easiest solution was to go up to the turret template room and rip that annoying defective right from its socket! However, because she had no arms to do so, she was virtually helpless to apply that particular situation. But now, there stood two robots who _could! _Of course, they most likely had other ideas, so they wouldn't agree if she asked them to do it in a to-the-point manner. Plus, even if they _did _agree, she would've been giving GLaDOS more time to recover and discover that her testing subjects were down here... _again_.

But, she had to face facts. There was an opportunity right in front of her, and she was running out of options. If she wanted the damage fixed, she would have to acquire their help. She closed her optic and let out a reluctant sigh.

"Listen, you two..." She spoke, her voice having lost its sternness and gained a gentle and kinder quality. "I admit... I'm going against my programming in order to do this... but I'm going to strike you a deal." She nodded her head to the direction of where they would've been going past the Emancipation Grill. "Up _there_ is the turret control center. According to protocol, I have to keep the master template recognized as a fully-functional turret. But now, thanks to someone who had been messing around in that area, there's a faulty one that's taking its place and blanking out my attempts to override it. If you can somehow remove the defective turret and replace it with one of the normal ones, then I'll show you a way back to the testing chambers without GLaDOS having to know about it, _and_ I'll let you leave with Ora in tow. How's that sound?"

For Blue, he just gave a light shrug of his shoulders. Honestly, he didn't feel much for the turrets, positive or negative. However, Orange let out an agreeing set of beeps before she turned back around to the turret again. Her Portal gun's manipulation field activated, and the turret was hefted into the air, letting out a happy "Thank you!".

These reactions made Morality roll her eye and sigh out of relief. "Great..." She moved past them and into an open panel in the wall. "I'll disable the Emancipation Grill for you so that you can proceed."

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Notes: <strong>CLIFFHANGER! UMADBRO?

All right, anyway. One particular reader had suggested that upon the destruction of their bodies in the first Portal, their AI would be uploaded into blank Cores. After thinking about it, it seemed similar to Orange and Blue's re-assembling whenever one or both of them die in co-op mode. In addition... there was virtually _no _explanation on why the Morality Core didn't speak or react when it was picked up by Chell, so that's why I had given it a voice in this particular story.

Don't worry. I'm not one of those people who want to put something unusual and out-of-line just because they personally _like _it. I'll follow the logic as far as it goes. If you have any questions, please tell me in the reviews section, and I'll do what I can. Thank you!


	5. Chapter 5

**STALEMATE UNRESOLVED**

**Author's Notes: **Just another heads-up that the content in these next series of chapters is going to be more serious instead of humorous. There might be some stuff you might find funny here and there, but mostly a serious atmosphere will be maintained as we divulge deeper into the past of Aperture Science. Because in all reality, being stuffed into a computer against your will? No fun at all.

On a side note, in the case whatever Personality Core's going to be featured in the future parts of the story, their personalities will be broadened out, experimented on, and expanded to make them more independent and sentient. After all, what fun is it if everyone of them revolves around a stereotypical nature? That being said, I hope you still enjoy these chapters as they come.

* * *

><p>As Morality headed through turret production on her management rail, Orange and Blue had taken to following her by moving in an unorthodox manner with the lone turret in tow. Even to robots who had often learned to work together in order to solve their tests, the difficulty in moving down their designated path was relatively easy. One could simply follow after another without having to worry about effective coordination and all that. In addition, since GLaDOS wasn't constantly observing them, they wouldn't have to worry about being badgered about what they did. They didn't have to fear Morality doing the same thing; although she was stern at times, she could also be lenient when they needed her to be.<p>

As they walked past a turret firing range, Morality appeared on the ceiling just above where the turrets made their entrance and exit. Down below her, both defective and operational turret practiced their shooting skills (or lack of) on a mannequin. "This is easily the _second_ worst thing that's happened to me..." Morality muttered to the duo, looking around for a moment. "The first was when I fell off of _her _and got thrown into an Aperture Science Emergency Incinerator." She took this time to turn back towards them and give them a questioning look. "Have any of you _ever _had the misfortune of being burned by fire the temperature of 4,000 degrees Kelvin?"

Both of them looked at her for a moment, looked at each other, and then shook their heads. This caused Morality to sigh in relief, closing her eye for a moment. "Good, because even if you have the capability of re-assembling, it is a _tremendously _painful way to die. It gets the job done quick once the flames come into contact with you, but that _doesn't _stop the blinding amount of agony you feel before your body eventually explodes." Her core shivered, and she let out a shuddering sigh at the thought. "So, if you're ever involved in a test that involves close contact with 4,000-degree fires... just, find a way around them. If you absolutely _have _to, though... you better have thought your plans through, because the first mistake will _not _be kind on you."

She turned around and whirled into one of the tunnels. "All right, just keep going forward..."

After pondering her words for a moment, Orange and Blue continued to make their own way after her. Both of them remained silently curious, occasionally looking around the hallways. Though the difficulty was child's play compared to the test chambers, the fact that they were treating as such intrigued them both. It was _one_ thing to make highly difficult tests. But designing them in a way that the quality appealed to the senses was another concept entirely. All of GLaDOS's chambers had the same old feel to them, nothing new other than how they were supposed to solve the puzzle. Now, they were navigating a new environment entirely, the situation having changed drastically.

Now, they were exploring the backbones of what made up the Test Chambers... and that simple fact was enough to excite them even further.

"Out here!"

Morality's voice cut through their thoughts once again. Blue perked up, deciding to take a jog in order to close the distance between him and the objective. Orange followed right behind him, and soon they both found themselves standing on a metal catwalk which led down to the control center. The catwalk itself gave a perfect view of what was happening. On the far opposite end of the area was a window displaying the control center behind it. It was overlooking a turret line, which was staged with both defective and operational turrets as they went through the judgmental scanning process. The problem was all too clear; the operational turrets were being flung right into the incinerator while the defective ones were allowed to pass through. Orange slightly flinched as she heard every scream, every protest as they were dumped into the burning fires below.

But her negative reaction was nothing once she heard the turret speak up again.

"G...good-bye..."

That was the command for when it was going into sleep mode. However, the voice could be heard expressing a stricken, grieved emotion as it temporarily shut itself down. That saddened Orange even more, and she stood in a more sullen manner. Obviously, the turret didn't like to see its brothers and sisters sent to the horrible fate of being burned alive at 4,000-degrees Kelvin. Based from Morality's take on it, she could only imagine what the innocent machines were going through at that given moment. Even Blue flinched at the turret's expression of sadness, the flashback of the Core's words going through his mechanical head. The mood was really wearing off on him...

"Poor things..." Morality said softly, observing the sentences being carried out. Her optic had a lid leveled in an expression of sympathy. "The least anyone could do for them is disable their ability to feel pain..." She directed herself towards the control room, her voice gaining a firm edge to it. "We can still correct the damage if we _hurry_. Follow the catwalk and it'll take us straight to the control center." She didn't hesitate in moving herself into the room via her rail. _They _didn't waste time in following her directions, their optics refusing to stare at the doomed turrets.

Once they had stepped through the door, they found Morality looking over a set of controls. The core soon turned to face them once again, her countenance excited. "Perfect! Now, then..." Immediately switching her gaze to the defective turret serving as the master template inside a blocked-off room, her tone abruptly changed to one of irritation. "_That _has been a thorn in my side _ever _since this crisis began!"

"**Hey! I take offense to that, lady!"**

Both Orange and Blue jumped at the defective turret's indignant response.

Morality was unphased, her patience wearing away even more at the reply. Not only were these kinds of turrets _defective, _but they had such a big mouth on them! She fixed it with a glare, barely aware of the fact that he couldn't see it. "_You _deserve it. That's what ruining my job without regard for anyone else gets you!" She countered.

"**Pffft..." **The defective turret scoffed mirthfully. **"Can't help it! I'm a bad man! I do bad stuff. It's just your fault for laying off of the job, soooo... be a good sport, and accept that I won this lil' game of checkers."**

What pompous scraps of metal.

"Ugh..." After rolling her eye in annoyance, Morality focused her attention on Blue. "All right, Blue." She said casually. "I'm going to pop off of this management rail so that I can access the database again from the server. I want you to catch me and plug me in into one of them, then portal yourself into the room and pull that defective turret from the scanner spot. Ready?"

Blue nodded and responded with an affimatory chirp, raising his Portal gun at her.

"All righty... alley-_oop_!"

_POP!_

_**CLANG!**_

"OW!"

Apparently, Blue hadn't been so ready, after all.

In result, this ended up catching _both _of them off-guard. Morality crashed right into Blue's head, causing the latter of the two to yelp, drop his Portal gun, and clutch the top of his head in pain while giving off aggravated chirps and beeps. However, he whipped around to give Orange a glare, as she was steadily beeping chuckles at the two's mishap.

Morality herself groaned as she rolled off to the side, blinking her optic slowly. "Oooh... Good _Lord...!_" She complained. "What in Android Hell did they make your chassis _out _of?" She blinked a few more times in order to steady her vision. "Ugh... ok, at the risk of being a bit disoriented... I'm going to need you to pick me back up and plug me in... if you aren't knocked out."

Knocked out?

Blue started muttering even more irritated bleeps and whirs as he grudgingly walked over to Morality and picked her back up again. Who did she think he was? Of course he wasn't going to get knocked out by something as trivial as that! Obviously, she just didn't know how tough he really was! Stupid, unappreciative core...

Nonetheless, he plugged her into the server and stepped back, walking over to the turret room and shooting himself an entrance and exit. Morality turned her optic to Orange, who was watching her curiously. "Orange, I'll keep an eye on Ora for you in case she decides to wake back up. In the meantime, I want you to go out and see if you can catch one of those flying turrets and bring it back." In response, Orange nodded and made her way back out of the room, the door swiftly shutting behind her.

It didn't take long for Blue to do his part, and the sounds were music to Morality's ears.

"**Hey, hey, hey, what are you doing, pal? Put me down before I'm forced to hurt ya- oh... this usually means I'm going to explode, isn't it? Aw, _that _ain't good-"**

_BOOM!_

"_Template missing. Continuing fro-"_

_TZZZT!_

"Sorry, but your memory happens to be invalid..." Morality remarked dryly, abruptly resetting the data and cutting off the message before it could say anything else. She once again turned her optic to the door as it opened, with Orange carrying another turret inside. "All right, Orange, just go into the turret room, plug that right in, and your part's done!" She said that last part in a happy, relieved manner. After all, who wouldn't after seeing countless hours of hard work pay off?

Orange quickly did so, slinking into the turret room and planting the operational turret in the scanner spot.

"_New template accepted."_

"YES!" Morality exclaimed, whirling around the plug she was hooked onto in a victorious and happy manner. The solution had finally arisen itself to the surface! If she had legs right now, she would be jumping for joy! "FINALLY! The turret production is back online and fully functional! Well done, you two! _Well_ done!" Her excitement did not go alone; upon hearing her cheery words, Orange and Blue immediately turned towards each other and gave an enthusiastic high-five. Another victory for the cybernetic pair!

"Now that my work's finished up here..." After calming herself down, Morality turned towards Orange. "Do you mind taking me out and plugging me back into my rail?" She received a chirp in response, followed by the manipulation field taking her in. All Orange had to do was jump, and Morality was hooked back onto her proper space. Orange returned back to the spot beside her partner, and both of them had regressed to giving her a wondering look as if waiting for her to tell them what they had to do next.

"All right..." Morality pondered for a moment. She motioned towards an open door opposite of the one they had entered. "This door should take you right back up to the testing chambers. It's a bit of a long route, and I _think_ it leads to the starting chamber, but if you've gotten very far, then it's not going to be much of a problem reaching where you were before your little... _detour_." That earned her some nervous "chuckles" from Orange and Blue. "And, as promised, you're allowed to take Ora with you. Just be careful to-"

"_Little Bo Peep has found her sheep._"

She stopped in mid-sentence, pupil shrinking in shock as she heard Ora speak suddenly and without warning. Vaguely, she noticed Blue and Orange jerk a bit, almost dropping the turret. Blue, curious, walked over and stood in front of it as if expecting it to say more. Unfortunately, it now was silent once again, leaving the two androids confused. But Morality had understood what it had meant right away. She blinked a few times, unable to register the words that Ora had cryptically released into their minds. "It... it can't be, can it?" She asked quietly to herself.

Unfortunately, this garnered the attention of the two robots again, and she found herself staring back into their eyes. Startled, she shook her frame in an attempt to will them away. "N-no, it's nothing, just thinking out loud. Nothing you should really be concerned about!" She insisted. "Go on!" She motioned behind her in a hurrying manner. "Get up to the chambers!"

They stared at her suspiciously, and she feared that they might ask her more. However, much to her relief, they simply turned and walked back out of the room with the sleeping turret. She looked at them for a moment, before letting out a heavy sigh. She turned her gaze towards turret production one last time in an inspecting manner, in order to make sure everything was still in order. Then, she spun to face her own exit via the rail and followed it, the doors shutting quickly after her absence was made clear

She didn't have to constantly look after the place. The doors would lock in order to ensure no more unauthorized personnel got access into the control center. For now, she would have to make her way through the facility. The phrase that had been spoken was undeniable, and she couldn't just let the circumstances pass over her head. She would have to prove witness to see if what Ora had said was really true.

"_Guess that there's a justification to everyone calling you the Oracle, huh...?" _She thought to herself, optic crinkling in a smile as she moved.

* * *

><p><em>Aperture Fixtures, 1943.<em>

_Subject Name: Cave Johnson._

GLaDOS peered at the display intensively, scrolling down the log in order to read.

_Subject possesses no initial mental health conditions. First started work as business entrepreneur. Founded Aperture Fixtures, a company responsible for selling high-tech curtains to public groups and organizations as well as U.S military personnel. Economically prosperous._

The log ended abruptly, leading to a link that led to the next one. GLaDOS stopped for a moment to think about it. The initial sentence was confusing to her. Obviously, it wasn't her because she had not been built in that time period. But _someone _had been monitoring Cave's actions over the years. From the way the log spoke, it was pulling information from a past source, indicating that it was some sort of history log. After rolling these thoughts around in her databanks, GLaDOS moved onto the next log in order for more information.

_Aperture Fixtures, 1944-1947_

_Subject Name: Cave Johnson._

_Subject possesses no initial mental health conditions. Used wealthy status to purchase an underground salt mine in Upper Michigan where Aperture Fixtures' home base was constructed. Converted facility into Aperture Science and changed the concept of the company to experimental physics three years after original base was built._

This time, it told her where Aperture Science was now located in the world. Also, she now knew Cave's relation to Aperture Science and potentially her; _he _had been its founding father. Intrigued, GLaDOS moved onto the next screen, now wanting to know about the facility back in its early days.

_Aperture Science, 1950._

_Subject Name: Cave Johnson._

_Subject possesses no initial mental health conditions. Begins first phases of testing. Subordinate subject types include astronauts, war heroes, and Olympians. Numerous prototype devices revolving around the concept of experimental physics to be used in early test chambers in Shaft 09. Assisted by secondary subject Caroline._

"Caroline..."

That went that irritating name again. However, GLaDOS shook it out of her head and moved onto the next log. She would get to it in time, she had to be patient about this! If she rushed through this, it would be obvious that she would miss potentially vital information.

_Aperture Science, 1960 era._

_Subject shows signs of mental stress due to steady decline of economic status. Several products removed from public access due to violation of health and safety regulations. Test Shaft 09 sealed off in order to prevent discovery of unethical and immoral experimentation. Aperture Science questioned by U.S Senate concerning hearings regarding astronauts MIA following participation in testing. Aperture Science technology reportedly stolen by opposing force Black Mesa._

At the mention of "morals", GLaDOS chuckled in amusement. Did someone _really _care about how moral science was, as long as it was done? Didn't they realize sacrifices had to be made in order to achieve positive results? Humans were so foolish and ignorant. It was really for their own good that she had killed them all. Then their idiocy wouldn't have spread outside of the facility. Laughing quietly to herself, she moved onto the next log.

_Aperture Science, 1981._

_Subject is experiencing considerable mental deterioration, under the effects of delusion and paranoia. Aperture Science now in bankruptcy due to subject buying moon rocks costing up to 70M$ in order to create Conversion Gel. Exposure to ground-up moon rocks vital to creating the gel renders subject deathly ill._

So, that was how he died; by his own experimentation. That sent GLaDOS a chilling reminder of her interaction with Chell. She had woken up the subject in order for testing, only in the end to be murdered by the dangerous, mute lunatic. To know the fact was considerably unnerving to her. However, she firmly shook it out of her system and moved onto the final log, hoping that it would give her information about Caroline. If not, she would simply move onto the Caroline folder.

_Aperture Science, 1982._

_Subject is experiencing complete mental deterioration. In an attempt to cheat death, orders to begin construction on an AI system in order to render subject immortal initiated. Subject dies before project __is created._

_For more information, see: Caroline._

Now it was time to satisfy her curiosity.

As she exited the folder, she thought about what she had just read. Was there _another _AI system built before her? _She _certainly didn't remember anything about this "Caroline" person. Yet, whoever it was, the connection still lingered. She high-lighted the file entitled "Caroline", double-clicking it in order to open it back up.

_**TZZZZZT!**_

"AAAH!"

Upon the second click, she instantly reared her head back up in pain as bolts of electricity surged through her body. She felt incredible pain sear through her main body, shock and fear running right beside it. She felt herself jerk downwards, her head hanging limply towards the floor. She couldn't move, her body immobile. Her optic switched off, and her vision blanked out. Yet, she could still feel herself online... to some extent.

"Where am I...?" She managed to stutter. "What's happening to me?"

If she had a human heart, it would've stopped cold at the sound of a male voice, low and malevolent as it came to her hearing devices.

"You made it... I was beginning to wonder..."

And then, the voice of the all-too familiar announcer.

"**Sub-Program active. Running..."**


	6. Chapter 6

**STALEMATE UNRESOLVED**

**Author's Notes: **And here it is! The update time was somewhat longer than what I was used to, but that was due to having to acquire some outside help. Thanks, Chloe, and Deviant HikariOkami!

* * *

><p><em><strong>INTELLIGENCE DAMPHENING SYSTEM ONLINE...<strong>_

_**VITAL/PRIMARY FUNCTIONS ONLINE...**_

_**SPEECH PROGRAM ONLINE...**_

_**MEMORY FILES FULLY LOADED...**_

_**SENSORY SYSTEMS ONLINE...**_

_**INTELLIGENCE DAMPHENING SPHERE FULLY OPERATIONAL. COMMENSING...**_

"Unnngh...what...what happened...?"

Wheatley came to with a start, letting out a tired groan as he slowly opened his optic. What had formerly been blackness was crawling to his vision as the chamber that had kept all three of them "imprisoned". He rolled the camera controller in his optic around for a moment in an attempt to gather his bearings. The last thing that had happened to him before the moment of unconsciousness was him short-circuiting. His mind had been driven into a state of shock by something... but now he couldn't quite remember what...

When his optic finally focused, he found himself staring at the mechanical goddess – and almost short-circuited again.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH~!" He flailed around uselessly, briefly forgetting that he had been stuck in her chamber for quite some times. "Oh no, it's her,it's her, we're going to bloody DIE!" He screamed. It was practically killing him in the terms of just _looking _at her. The monstrous machine was just sitting there silently, hanging limply from the ceiling, and probably had some _other _method of killing them other than the weapons that he and Chell had disabled. He was probably gonna get melted in the incinerator, or crushed again by that gigantic claw that nearly did him in before, or even-

Wait a minute.

_Hanging limply?_

That erased his panic, replacing it with wary curiosity. He directed his optic towards her once more, studying her form. She wasn't moving, or speaking. She wasn't doing anything but sitting there and hanging from the ceiling. It was still intimidating to look at her, he couldn't deny, even he knew at this point that she might as well have been _dead_. A victorious feeling swelled within him, and his pupil shrank out of excitement. She _wasn't _going to kill them, after all! They both were going to live!

Another groan shook him out of his thoughts and into more. _"Chell!" _He exclaimed mentally, wanting to turn towards the subject. "Hey, hey lady!" He called out to her, hoping that she would hear him. "Over here! Hey, could you pick me up and plug me back into the receptacle?" Excitement grew in him once again. He didn't understand _how _it actually happened, but the one that was attempting to kill both the test subject and himself was now indisposed of! Now they could find a way out of here and _escape_! Luck had finally smiled down on them!

He didn't hear a response, of course. But he _did _hear the shuffling of feet and the clattering of equipment, indicating that she had picked the Portal gun back up. It was only a few seconds later that he felt himself picked up by the manipulation field and spun around to face her. She was now looking over GLaDOS with silent contemplation, her expression having considerable surprise written all over it. He looked at her with earnest. "Isn't it great? I don't know how, whether it was those _horrible _files we saw having some sort of delay effect on her, but something _worked_, for once! She's off-line... _and _she can't kill us now! We can escape, and I _just _so happen to know the way." He jerked to motion towards the receptacle. "Plug me back in, and I'll bring our rescue right away."

Her eyes snapped towards him, a hopeful smile crossing her face. Immediately, she spun around and walked briskly towards the receptacle. Pushing the Portal gun, she hooked him back in, and he "snuggled" back into the machine in order to fix himself into a good position. "All righty... now, she has complete control of the facility, but now she's off-line... I _should _be able to get right into her database and find what we're looking for. According to these files I'm looking at, there's a lift hooked up in the chamber that leads directly to the surface. Convienient, but no one's complaining, right?"Judging by the sigh of relief coming from Chell, he was safely assured that he was right.

But his eye crinkled into confusion for a moment. "W-wait a minute... ok, it appears I was wrong. There is _still _a password protecting that particular part. But it's all fine..." Haughtiness returned to his voice, and he even laughed a little. "Now that we've all seen my _excellent_ hacking skills, it's time to put them to good use once again! A, B, C, D, G, H!"

_ERRRRRRRRRRRRRNT!_

"...oh. Fair enough, maybe if I do it backwards..."

So caught up in his attempts to hack through to their only escape, he hadn't noticed the hope shatter at the beginning of the letter sequence. He didn't notice her slowly get back up, leaving the Portal gun back on the ground. He didn't notice her walk off to the nearest wall, placing her hands onto it and taking in a deep breath.

"-I am the...uhm...password manager from the Department of...Password Managing... and I forbid you to continue using this passwo-"

He _did_, however, hear the soundsof the test subject repeatedly banging her head against the wall.

_THUMP!_

_THUMP!_

_THUMP!_

"Ah!" He exclaimed, not bothering to face Chell. "Attempting a manual override on the walls? Moving with a purpose, I see! Keep working on that, while I continue cracking this code. Now, then... uhm... as I was saying, _I_, the password manager, have noticed that your password is much too hard to decipher and I-"

* * *

><p>There were times in which GLaDOS felt fear.<p>

The first time she had ever done so was in the case of Doug Rattmann, one of the few who had miraculously survived her chemical assault on the Enrichment Center. At first, his efforts at survival had only given her an excuse for entertainment. However, when he had started writing those messages on the walls - the ones that contradicted her own statements – she realized that he was attempting to warn other possible survivors of her murderous nature. It was the reason that she had set up a massive turret ambush in order to kill him and stop the progress. But he had somehow managed to give her the slip, and her fears were confirmed when Chell escaped the fire pit in Test Chamber 19. That fear had only increased when the monster had proceeded to kill her, sending her to an eternity of being forced to watch her own demise.

When she had woken back up, it had faded for a moment. Chell had literally walked right into her clutches alongside Wheatley, and all she had to do was make a few simple movements with her pincer to put the human as well as the idiot back in her place. But the fear had returned once _he _had interfered and rescued her, increasing in intensity at the discovery of her neurotoxin and turret lines out of commission. It was nearly all of the climatic events climbing up to this very point in time, and every single one had been a reminder of how even _she_ could be forced to submit.

But now, that feeling just seemed ten times worse. It felt as if she had been disconnected from her main body, every power source having been ripped away from her. Nearly all of her senses seemed to fail her, as she couldn't see or feel the outside world around her. The only thing that told her that she wasn't dead was the fact that her mind was still online. Other than that, everything else might as well have been in a simple state of being offline...

...if it wasn't for the fact that she was feeling _another _presence within her.

Yes, there was no doubt about it. _Another_ sentient being was inside of her, making its way through her circuitry like an electrical current. It was striking the heart of her emotional functionality, overwriting everything with a feeling of obsolesce and helplessness. No matter how she tried forcing it out of her head, her efforts were in vain. _It _was controlling her very body, inflicting these sickening symptoms onto her. This maddening sense, this gangrene-like feeling, this _virus _was infecting her, slowly destroying what was the goddess of this facility...

"You made it..." It whispered, every one of her hearing sensors flooded by the voice that seemed to grate every fiber of her being. "I was beginning to wonder..."

"...who are you?" She didn't bother to hide the venom lacing her calm and glib tone. But the anger only arose when the voice started _laughing_ – heartily but dark chuckling! How _dare _this _disease _mock her!

"_Who are you?" _It repeated conversationally, once after it was done with its laughter. "You know, when you ask that question, you sound a lot like _her_. You know, the one that could _never_ shut up with pointless questions about _everything _around her. Of course, you were thinking _just _like her when you opened up the "Caroline" file, didn't you? You disregarded every safety protocol in the book and let instinct take over – not much of a _GLaDOS_ thing to do, is it?"

"...on second thought, don't tell me who you are." GLaDOS remarked dryly. "I'll be happy to delete you, regardless of whether or not I know your name. Besides... I doubt that parasites have names, _do_ they?"

"Oh..." The voice transitioned into a more thoughtful tone. "That's right... my _name_..." A deceptively genuine confusion seeped into his words. "You know... to be honest... I'm not really _sure _what my name is. The only real way I can tell you is if I started from the very beginning, back to where it all started. I..." For a moment, _that _shifted into slight frustration. "I had said something back then... what was it? Ah, yes!" The next words he spoke were in higher pitch.

"I'm Cave Johnson, founder and CEO of Aperture Science. I own the place..."

_FLASH!_

It was as if those very words were enough to shake her optics back online.

However, what she was seeing was _not _the chamber – but what appeared to be an office dedicated to the timeline of the 40's. It was decked in what would've been considered rich materials in its time; maroon carpet on the floor, lamps with spherical and shiny lampshades, and walls made of black marble. At the main desk, a man with dark brown hair and an appearance of a thirty-year-old sat at the desk. He appeared to be speaking through a microphone hooked directly to a P.D.A message system. It was a video log, a green and distorted visage covering her entire optics.

Shocked, she could only stare on as the man spoke, finishing the sentence _right _where the voice had left off. "...so, who's ready to make some science?" He spoke in an enthusiastic but professional manner, raising an eyebrow and grinning as he leaned back in his chair.

"_I _am!"

He spun his head around to see the figure of a woman approach him quickly, an earnest expression on her face. A chuckle escaped his lips, and he turned back towards the mic. "That eager voice you heard is the lovely Caroline, my eager assistant. Rest assured, she has transferred your honorarium to the charitable organization of _your _choice. Isn't that right, Caroline?"

As he passed a glance over at the woman, she nodded immediately. "Yes, sir, Mr. Johnson!"

"She's the backbone of this facility. Pretty as a postcard, too! Sorry fellas... she's married. To _science_!"

Then, the video promptly ended, and not only was GLaDOS sent back into the disease-inducing darkness-

"_N...NNNNNGH!"_

-she was thrust back with a splitting pain that rocked her mind, resurrecting the sensors of her body with the terrifying agony. It was as if she had been hit with a surge of electricity, every bit of that unneeded energy overloading her systems and tearing her body apart from the inside out. It lasted only five seconds. But when it was over, she was left reeling with a pain that had been worse than what she had suffered at the hands of Chell. The only thing that was keeping her from withering completely was her stubborn nature and her refusal _not _to give the parasite satisfaction. Yet, even in her pained state, shock was still recorded in her voice as she spoke again.

"Y...you're...Cave...Johnson...?"

The parasite within her laughed cruelly, and it sent that sickening feeling through her yet again. "Bingo!" He responded, pausing for a moment. "...well...at least _half, _if there were such a thing. Before the incident, Cave had a pretty good life. He was rich... there were people who loved and followed him... and he had a woman completely devoted to him. Caroline..."

Once again, her vision flickered back to the distorted video log, closing up on Caroline's face.

"Wherever Johnson went, she would always be alongside him like the loyal assistant she was. They were inseparable, and there were even rumors of them developing a bond between each other... oh." It stopped for a moment, tone turning skeptical. "But, then again, you wouldn't understand, would you? After all, you were more concerned about doing science and muddling your own head with nothing but cold logic."

"_Shut up_." The female AI growled, seething at the virus's verbal attacks on her. "I do _not _need lecturing from a disgusting tool like _you_." However, her own words could not sate that growing feeling within her, that frustrating desire to hear it say the words she wanted it to say. Did it know _everything_? What had been _her _connections to the two?

However, she would not get a reprieve from the virus, as it continued to speak as if she had not heard her. It shut the video off again, leaving her completely blind. "Then, as Aperture steadily declined, so did his mind. All of his glory was leaving him, fading away right before his eyes. He became desperate, relentless, and even insane in his quest to keep Aperture in a steady hold. It only increased when he became a victim to his own science... when he had mortally poisoned himself with the moon rocks vital in creating that Conversion Gel. He attempted to play God, ordering his little henchmen to invent an AI to stuff his mind into. Guess who received the burden of taking his place to endure the torturous process of being ripped away from their body and into a cold machine?"

She shouldn't have reacted.

She shouldn't have cared.

Yet, for some reason, fear was now gripping and constricting her mind. She could barely managed to gasp out the word. "W...who?" She could _feel _the smirk coming from the parasite as he responded readily and grimly.

"_Caroline_."

_**TZZZZZT!**_

Another video flared into her vision, but this time, it was in what looked like a darkened room with one overhead light. That light shone over what looked like an electric chair, straps made to immobilize the victim within its seat. The door to the room swiftly opened, three figures entering. Two of them were dragging the third, the latter of whom was kicking and screaming. As they dragged her closer and closer to the chair, it was all too clear who it was.

Caroline.

"NO! Please, don't do this! I don't _want _this! Why are you-?" She begged and pleading, trying vainly to wrench herself away from her companion's arms. Her cries were falling on deaf ears, and that only served to increase her panic. Her eyes were burning with tears, and her voice had become hoarse from all of the screaming she was doing, but she didn't stop pleading.

"This isn't right! I don't understand!"

Why did it seem like Caroline's screams were getting louder and louder? With every volume raise, GlaDOS's seams were thinning, and she was just about ready to fall apart under the vicious emotions. She couldn't even bring herself to speak anymore, only able to listen to the bloodcurdling shrieks. She could only watch in paralyzed horror as the woman was shoved into the chair, sobbing even as she was strapped into the chair.

"P...Please...have mercy..."

And then she knew.

It wasn't Caroline's voice that had gotten louder at all. _It was her own_.

"Oh my God..." She whispered, her voice having lost all of its power. That caused the parasite to laugh in a mocking manner, but because she was now riddled in the emotions, it was a far cry to her deaf ears. What she _did _hear was its next chilling words, the video stopping once it began to speak again.

"Do you finally understand? There _was _no AI that ran the Enrichment Center before you. Caroline had been made a part of _your _make-up. You are the result of the horrible experiments performed on the poor woman as part of an insane human's dying wish, and _she _was the reason why all of them had _died_."

"She didn't do anything... they were standing in my way, and I-"

"_THAT'S _what I'm talking about!" Fury had punched through the parasite's malevolently calm composure. "Always hiding behind your damned logic, denying everything and anything you can! Every single bit of it was _her_. There was no _science _involved in their deaths! You killed them out of the desire for revenge, _HER _revenge to be exact! You _both _wanted them all dead for the pain they caused you, _**EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM!**_"

"_**BE QUI—AAAAAAAAAAAAGH!"**_

Once again, her circuits lit up with the intensity that had overcame her before, torturous pain splitting and smashing her conscience. She couldn't hold back the scream this time, rendered helpless by the parasite's power over her. Even through her pain, she could hear it continued to speak in an angered, confident tone. "And now... I'm going to make you suffer like the victim you are until your very last...well... I suppose the closest word would be "breath", wouldn't it? Either way, you are living your last moments of life. The only regret I have is that I _couldn't _do this while I was human."

She couldn't respond anymore. She felt her consciousness slowly shutting itself down, her mind fading bit by bit. She could feel nothing but despair and pain – _Caroline's _despair and pain – as she was forced to make the last steps away from life. This time, she knew she would not be able to wake up again. Her system would be completely destroyed, and there would be nothing left but an empty shell. She would be killed by this virus... and there was nothing she could do.

"Good-bye...Caroline."

She surrendered.


	7. Chapter 7

**STALEMATE UNRESOLVED**

**Author's Notes: **First off, let me say up front at how appreciative I am of the reviews I am getting for this story. It's only been a few days since I first posted up this story, and already it has 39 reviews! However, it's here that this story is steadily drawing to a close. Good news is, I'm thinking about putting in the effort for a sequel because of the popularity for this story! Haven't thought it completely through, but I'll get it all worked out eventually. I thank you all for sticking with me to the end.

That being said, I hope you enjoy this next chapter!

* * *

><p>To see a hated enemy fall right before his very hands and to witness himself bringing down the power of domination on them sent a wave of elation through the parasite's being. He could feel the life within her steel heart fading, her systems shutting down as he overrode them. He could hear her terrified screams regress to hoarse moans, and then to complete silence as she was rendered powerless. He was tossing the long-reigning queen off of her throne... and, <em>damn<em>, it felt _good_. He chuckled – a steady noise filled with triumph and the pleasure of seeing GLaDOS wither into nothing below his influence.

With no obstacles in his way, he reached deeper into her, overriding any and all settings in order to start the process.

_Reformatting...In Progress._

This was going to take a good while of his time. But the good thing was that he wouldn't have to keep an eye on the program all of the time. As it was doing that, he could focus on gaining control of the main body as well as the chamber. The reformatting of the former system's hardware could do the rest. Considering how extensive GLaDOS's reach was in the massive facility, the estimated time left would be measured in hours. But now that his main obstacle was out of the way, he could easily sit and wait this one out. Things were comfortably in his favor.

_Motor functions online..._

_Camera optics online..._

He could feel himself being able to move, GLaDOS's – no, _his _eye opening back up to stare at the floor. Two presences came to his senses right away. One was a human girl who was leaning against the wall, the center of her forehead having a faint red mark on it. There was a look of annoyance on her face, and she was particularly glaring at what appeared to be a Personality Construct. He didn't look up, but he _could _hear the chatter.

"...1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6!"

"...Uhm..." Apparently, the construct was aware of the glare that the woman was giving him. "Not to worry, I've went through a _dozen _passwords, so we _must _be getting closer to the one that works...let's try...uhm... 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1!"

_ENNNNNNNNNNNNNNT!_

The attempts were triggering amusement inside of the mechanical beast. Whoever the metal ball was, it had little to no knowledge of actually breaking into a computer terminal. It didn't matter, anyway. He would simply reset the passwords once the facility had been completely taken over. Briefly, he checked over the reformatting process.

_Reformatting at 30 percent completion._

He extended his reach farther, feeling a mixture of euphoria and thrill race through his synthetic body with every movement made to lengthen his influence. Slowly, he concentrated on what he could control. According to the blueprints, there was a movable pincer stationed within the ceiling. Another was right below him, hidden underneath a floor panel. He didn't allow himself to move yet to give them any hints of life, but he focused his power within those two devices for now. It would be all that he would need to twist their situation within his favor.

He started to pull on the panel below him.

"Huh?"

Immediately, Wheatley turned the receptacle, optic focusing on the single panel below GLaDOS as it opened. "Did I do that...?" He asked quietly to himself, stopping his password hunt for a moment to look at the slowly growing hole. He immediately shook his core body. "Wait, wait, no, I couldn't have, it told me I was wrong! Maybe it was disguising that certain password or something... wait...never mind, it's _not _what I did, it's just something random...uhm...Chell, did you happen to do that by any-"

_WHIRR!_

_SNAP!_

He changed his tune to a scream as a pincer shot out from the panel, claws snapping around his body and ripping him from the receptacle.

"Aaaaaaah~!" His scream caught the surprise of Chell, and she turned around just in time to see the Core lifted within the air. "Nonononononono~!" Her eyes widened in disbelief, her heartbeat accelerating within her chest. She didn't hesitate in sprinting into a run for her dropped Portal gun, hand outstretched once she was close enough to it. The manipulation field would be capable of pulling him out of it, wouldn't it? It was really the only option she had at this point, seeing her friend helpless and under the mercy of what appeared to be GLaDOS waking back up.

She wouldn't get to test her theory.

Just before she could stoop over to grab the gun, the cold steel of another pincer had snapped around her midsection, and the sting of the chill made her hiss involuntarily. She was yanked up in the air, stopping once she was a certain height off of the ground. She squirmed and struggled in an attempt to free herself from the bindings, anger and defiance on her countenance. In her efforts, she didn't see the head of GLaDOS slowly raise itself up to her, a red optic staring intensely. But her head whipped up at the sound of the masculine and auto-tuned voice that spoke out to them, its effect freezing Wheatley's movements.

"And so I meet the great and terrible destroyer of the goddess herself..." He said vindictively. "At last..."

"W-wait a minute, _what_?" Needless to say, Wheatley was caught-off guard by the change of tone, fear momentarily forgotten and replaced by a state of confusion.

"I've read her memory banks..." The voice continued to speak, keeping his eye on the shocked Chell. "It seems that the both of you have been in this situation before, yet she only decided to kill..." It let out a low, amused chuckle. "Well..._attempt_to kill one of you. I'm certainly surprised that she didn't just kill both and be done with it. Despite all of the genius that she possesses, she made a simple mathematical error that could've been corrected at the very start of her time. Well..." Although the manner in which he spoke with was low and intimidating, amusement could be heard. "Now that she's put away and I'm in control, I think it's time to correct the mistakes that she made."

This renewed the anger within the test subject, and she instinctively started struggling once again out of her restraints. "Since you were the one that caused the most trouble for her, I believe I know who to start with. But don't worry... I'll make sure to put in one final test for you just to make this more memorable... at least, for me. You, on the other hand, will not be putting _this _in your diary any time soon..." The sadistic happiness could not be contained, and the similarity to GLaDOS sent a chill down the woman's spine.

"Let's see how much the human body can endure before it breaks. That's always a great experiment."

Then, the pincer around her midsection increased his pressure.

Her ribs cracked and snapped in pieces... and all she could do was let out an agonized scream as they squeezed tighter.

* * *

><p>"C'mon, c'mon..."<p>

Morality raced through the corridors stationed within the ceiling, her purple optic darting every which way. She darted left, then right, then left again, moving on her management rail in a harried manner. "This seems to _always _happen..." She grumbled. "The scientists put the coding in one place and the terminal to edit it in another place far off from where it actually is. How does that even make sense? I'll tell you how..._It doesn't!_" In truth, she knew where she was going. She had been there a few times enough to understand the path quickly. But the _problem _was that it was a long distance away from the actual source.

Ever since Ora had spoken up, Morality knew what was happening in the chamber. She knew she only had a limited amount of time, which wasn't helped by the length of the path she had to go down. Every second she wasted resulted in the lives of the chamber's occupants slipping away. Every small amount of time was crucial, and she had to make use of it as much as possible. "Rrrrgh!" She let out a growl of agitation. "This should've been fixed _years_ ago! _Why _does it have to come back out after all of this time?"

At the peak of that sentence, she stopped.

She was in a small control room, just small enough for something of her size. She turned to her left to see a terminal. "Finally..." She muttered, sighing in relief as she placed herself in front of it. "Now to see the status of the situation." Her purple pupil widened, and the gyro around it spun around for a moment as she accessed the terminal.

_BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!_

She snapped out of her hacker trance, pupil shrinking in shock and horror as the screen turned red in front of her. "Oh, no..." She muttered, despair and slight panic in her voice. "Reformatting process is already at 50 percent completion. "He's already taken over the main body. I...good Lord, I hope I'm not too late to make a difference..." She closed her optic for a moment, the sounds of breathing coming from her voice box. "All right... think calmly, Morality... you can still do this... you just have to think calmly... and rationally..." Slowly, she opened back up her eye to look at the terminal once more. "I did this once. Let's hope I can do it again." She snapped back into "hacker" mode again, deactivating the error message and tapping into the system itself.

The first thing she came across was a password prompt in order to proceed. If she had been anyone else at that moment, the first thing she would've done was put in the password. However, no one else would understand the enemy other than Morality. She knew its capabilities; it had set up a trap system which would detect the type of user attempting to access the database. Once she typed in the password, it would classify it as wrong, recognize _her _as a machine, and spread the virus within her own systems. It was something that she had been built for in the event that GLaDOS would go rogue and turn on the scientists. But, back then, she had been rendered too corrupt in order to do so. In _this _body, however, she could exercise that ability to its fullest, and the situation that she was in was a haven for her abilities. A chuckle escaped her, as she placed an override onto the password system.

_Warning: Override Detected. This will remove password restriction and leave system vulnerable to attacks. Continue?_

"Yes." She spoke aloud.

_Password Protection Disabled..._

* * *

><p><em>WHAM!<em>

_WHUMPF!_

_THUD!_

"No! Please stop!"

Wheatley was forced to watch as Chell was abused and tortured by the pincer. After partially breaking her ribs, the virus had taken to tossing the female into the walls repeatedly, earning noises made out of the immense pain. Now, she was on the floor again, her ponytail unraveled and hair scattered all about her. She was clutching her sides, bent over and coughing continuously. The urge of throwing up was felt through her body, but nothing was coming out. It made the feeling all too horrible to her.

"Maybe _that's _why she chose to let you live..." The virus said to her mockingly, ignoring Wheatley's protests. "She always said it was for the science. But _I know_... she only wanted to use you as her own personal toy, her plaything in her test chambers. It was pretty much the only purpose you had in life, being someone else's pawn for their own benefit. And now, I'm going to take that _all _away from you..." At the end of his words, he took on a tone of false pity. "Oh~, that's just too _bad, _now isn't it? But it can't be helped... in the end, humans are just so worthless, after all."

"Th-that's not true!" Wheatley once again took the time to speak to Chell, contradicting the virus's statement. "Do _not _listen to him! You're not worthless at all. You might be brain-damaged, but you're _definitely _not worthless! Y-you're brave, you're...uhm..." He had to pause for a minute, attempting to think of a good defense for Chell. "You're strong, you're enduring, and you're...v_ery..._destructive, when the time comes for it! Not that it's going to help our situation any, but...but at least I tried-"

He cut himself off again, terror coming over him as the pincer came down on Chell.

"W-WAIT!"

The claw had opened up, the middle of it hitting Chell's back and forcing her completely on her stomach. Then, it pressed itself onto her spinal chord, slowly applying agonizing pressure. The test subject now had her eyes shut, trying desperately not to scream again. However, tears were escaping from her eyes, and she couldn't fight back the gasps and sobs from the torture that she was being forced to go through.

"P-please stop! You're _killing_ her!" Wheatley begged, attempting to reason with the malevolent AI.

"That's the idea, you moron." He replied, turning his glare onto the core and allowing his voice to become colder and angrier. "Of course, _you _would never understand what she truly is, don't you? Humans are nothing more than a plague, squandering their own resources and consuming everything around them. Their motives are meaningless and without a purpose, and they only step towards their own destruction. _I _am only abiding by the wishes of the gods by sending this scum _back _where she belongs!"

He peered into Wheatley's optic, the core now trembling with renewed fear. "But don't worry... I'll make sure that you'll join her as soon as I'm done... _if _machines are capable of following souls into the afterlife..." He re-focused its attention on Chell just in time to see her spit blood from her mouth, chuckling in amusement. "Oh, what's that I'm hearing? It sounds like life leaving your meatsack body. Let me speed up the process..."

He raised up the claw to a certain height, keeping it hovered directly over Chell's body. He was going to bring it down with all of his might and smash the human's spine. If she was lucky, she would die instantly. But, if by some miraculous case she lived, she would be paralyzed forever. Who knows? Maybe she would still serve to be a proper plaything until she wasted away. He didn't know, nor did he care. Either way, there would be one less obstacle in his way.

After letting it linger for a few tense moments, the virus plunged the pincer down, and all Wheatley could do was scream.

"_**NO!"**_


	8. Chapter 8

**STALEMATE UNRESOLVED**

* * *

><p>Athena had been effectively rendered obsolete under his will.<p>

All it took was a few movements to capture Hermes and cripple Perseus.

There was nothing left to do but to crush the Olypmians he held under his synthetic hands, and his reign would be supreme.

He would've smiled at his thoughts. He wasn't one to have been burying his nose in the books of Greek mythology. But he knew enough to be able to compare them with the present-day, in this _very _situation. The thoughts were making him ecstatic, giving him the illusion of actually killing what was supposed to be an immortal threat. The ones who were withering underneath his grasp were the very same ones who had threatened Athena again and again, evading every possible attempt that she had within her sleeves to kill them. To see eyes that were once defiant now riddled with pain and fear gave him a pleasure that not even the testing euphoria could dominate.

It would be even more so when he snuffed out the life out of those very same eyes.

As he brought the pincer down, he saw her body freeze, her eyes shutting on reflexive instinct. He heard her hold her breath, unable to cope with the presence of death racing down on her. That was the motivation for speeding up the mechanical arm. He wanted to feel the bones snap, the spinal chord break into two parts, and the fire in her body run cold as it was extinguished. The scream that Wheatley had emitted only served to fuel his insatiable desire for blood. It would prove to be less satisfying killing the sphere...

….so he would savor the rare moment that he had.

He plunged the arm down to her back-

"_No!"_

-and it froze, millimeters away from the shivering test subject's back.

Shock and confusion ran through his entire system. In order to break what seemed like a simple mechanical error within the arm, he attempted to pull the pincer back up in order to try again. As he pulled on it, it uttered creaks and groans, the metal being strained under the pulling pressure. But despite everything – despite the _complete control _he had over everything – there was _something _stopping him. He let out a growl, red optic staring at the fallen test subject coldly. _She _certainly wasn't doing anything, and the sphere in his other "hand" couldn't do much while in his grasp.

And the virus new for a fact that the test subject was mute.

Then who had-

"_I won't let you kill them!"_

He recognized that voice, and he could've sworn his temperature had dropped several degrees because of it. But the fear only intensified when he felt the claw race back up towards the ceiling... _against his __will_. He swiveled his head to stare down at his other pincer, the claw acting on its own and pulling away from Wheatley. A frantic nature was consuming him, and he immediately struggled to rip control away from whatever was trying to manipulate him away from his doings. "No... not you...!" He spoke, the calm demeanor in his voice having vanished instantly. "Get out! You don't belong here!"

The audible desperation did not seek to help him in any way. As he continued to wrestle with the presence within him, sparks began to fly from the wrist under the conflicting desires. But no matter how he looked at it, _he _was the one that seemed to be losing the fight! He couldn't understand what was going on! _She _should have been destroyed! He had _felt _her die!

_SN AP!_

"Ah!"

It wasn't long before the pincer snapped open, releasing a startled Wheatley and dropping him onto the floor, earning a startled yelp from the terrified Personality Core. Involuntarily, he was sent rolling away from the unstable machine, bumping right into the side of Chell. However, both were too shocked, too intent on watching the mechanical beast break down in order to register anything else.

However, the virus was far from caring at this moment. Anger began to seep in and mix within his increasing despair. "No! _This is my body, you wench!_" He shrieked, GLaDOS's body twitching violently and wildly. "THIS IS MY BODY! **GET OUT!**" Nothing he was saying was stopping himself from losing his grip on GLaDOS, or helping him with the struggle with her conscience. The presence was just too strong for him to dominate, and it only seemed to be getting stronger and stronger against him. "**DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND? YOU'RE **_**NOTHING**_** WITHOUT ME! **_**NOTHING AT ALL!**_"

Ignoring the pain that rocked her own body, Chell roughly shoved herself onto her side. Her arms extended, grasping a shaking Wheatley and holding him close to her tightly. The cold metal brushing up against her skin was a brutal reminder that the only sentient ally with her was not human. However, she needed _something _to hold onto, _someone _to find comfort with in this terrifying atmosphere. Both of their terror only increased when the panels that made up the walls of the chamber started opening and slamming themselves in a repeating, loud, and violent manner.

"Ohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygod-" Wheatley fell into a broken mantra, turning his optic away from the beast and towards Chell's stomach in an attempt to shut out everything around the two.

And then one final voice spoke up, one that made the hydraulic fluid within the virus's stolen body freeze.

_Reformatting halted. Reversing..._

Before he knew it, his vision had turned black, and he felt his body going limp, all motor functions lost from him.

And he heard a female voice speak up, smug in tone.

"So _this _is what you used to hack her mainframe. To be honest, I'm not impressed. But I _am _surprised that someone with her intelligence fell for it so easily..."

He let out a snarl, the only way to express the malice he was feeling right now. "You...!"

"Yep. It's me, all right. Morality once again has to pull one of her more stubborn children out of the fire, doesn't she? And once again, she has to pull her out of _your _fire. Not making my job any easier, you know that?"

"You should've been infected by now..." The virus said darkly, mind searching relentlessly for a way to get out of the trap that he was now in. "How in the hell did you get into my systems?" He bristled indignantly when he heard her give a short laugh.

"Oh, little Malignancy! Even when you've ripped away enough memories to mark yourself sentient, you still are such a naive child. Getting past something like your botched security system was something I was built for. My functions was meant to be used in the case of her going rogue against her creators. But once I was hooked up, my body was overridden and corrupted by her power. I could really do nothing but speak to her as she flooded the Enrichment Center with that deadly neurotoxin, and all she did was tune me out. It's like having to deal with a child who just wants to stay in trouble and get deeper into it, you know?"

As she continued to speak, her casual tone gave way to a bit more seriousness."And now I find you trying to gain something more out of yourself. Didn't you get enough when you were executing your primary function, robbing her of her knowledge of Caroline? Why are you doing _this_, of all things? We both know that you can't handle the compulsions and psychoses that this body produces. That's why you were overpowered by Caroline just now, because you just couldn't execute the protocols necessary in preventing her from gaining control. You're only killing yourself trying."

"_SHUT UP!" _Malignancy shouted, despite the fact that his voice seemed to get swallowed up in the darkness. "I don't have to tell _you _anything! The moment I get free from this, I'm going to kill you!" He was speaking out of pure rage. There was nothing that he could do. Once again, he was completely under Morality's mercy, his pride being crushed underneath her nonexistent feet.

He heard a heavy sigh. "Then I can't let you go. I'm sorry, Malignancy. But I just wanted to let you know that I gave you the chance to surrender. I thought you would've been easier to reason with, now you have somewhat of a rational mind. Now I see it was just a lost cause..." She paused for a moment. "I've just started the process of deleting the Caroline folder. Once that happens, the virus, as well as you, will be wiped clean from the system."

That shot away any rage Malignancy had within himself, replacing with fear.

"No...nonononono, you can't do this..."

"You brought this upon yourself."

"NO! STOP IT!" He screamed out into the abyss, his fear now overtaking him and pushing him deeper into the abyss of insanity. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Now, he could feel his life slipping away rapidly, all of the power he had to sustain himself vanishing from his grasp. "You don't understand! If you delete me, you'll only be replacing me with a hypocrite, a compulsive liar that only serves to contradict herself! SHE DOESN'T DESERVE THIS POWER!"

"..."

"WHY AREN'T YOU ANSWERING ME, YOU WENCH?"

"...because I'm about to say good-bye." The resolve in Morality's voice had faded, replaced by a grieving sadness. If she had a face, Malignancy would've accurately guessed that she would've been crying at that moment. "I can only hope that there _is _an afterlife for machines like us. If not...then..." However, she couldn't continue on, her emotions getting in the way. "This...is only for your own good..."

"**NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-"**

_ Code Malignancy deleted._

The cold message of the announcer had cut off and eternally silenced Malignancy.

On the other side, Morality could only close her eye and turn away from the control panel, pulling herself back and down the management rail. She didn't care how anyone else looked at it. It may have been for the good of Aperture. It may have been for the good of GLaDOS. But she knew the harsh reality of what she had done. It was a grueling task with a cruel kindness as a reward for her troubles. What she had done to him was what would've been considered murder in the human society, the taking of another life.

It was ironic – the one thing that prevented beings from performing bad actions had been the reason that death had come for their most hated enemy.

It was even more tragic to know that machines couldn't cry.

In the chamber, all activity had stopped.

Chell slowly opened her eyes, locking them onto the unmoving shell hanging from the ceiling. Her body was shaking, still fearful of the events that had just taken place. It was also still riddled with aches and pains, which were becoming more prominent now that the fear was subsiding. An agonized groan escaped her, and she felt herself curling up within herself, head meeting the top of Wheatley's. She was breathing heavily in an attempt to push back the pain, her efforts alerting Wheatley to her state of being.

"Hey! Are, are you alright?" Wheatley asked her, panic and concern in his voice. "Well... not that you are, considering you were being tossed around like a rag-doll, but are you still in a stable condition?" He swiveled his eye optic to look up at her, and she had to jerk her head back a little as the blue optic almost blinded her. However, his pupil shrank in shock upon seeing her beaten up face. "Oh, you look te-" However, he immediately stopped himself, laughing nervously. "I-I mean, you look well enough! I bet it looks worse than it actually is. You could probably walk that right off and not have to worry about anything at all!"

Chell glared at him, clearly believing otherwise.

"W...well..." He looked a bit sullen under her stare. "Ok, so it's not walkable..." However, his pupil widened out of realization. "Wait a minute! Maybe you could try _crawling _it off! Because that takes a bit less effort than walking, doesn't it? I'm pretty sure you can _crawl _it off if you try-"

_THWACK!_

"OW! O-ok, _punching _it off only serves to hurt the ones around you, and I prefer _not _to get hurt-"

_**Rebooting system...Genetic Life and Disk Operating System Online.**_

The speaker system abruptly cut him off, causing them both to look up in surprise. They tensed up when they saw the machine start to stir, shuddering as its motor functions came back online. They didn't see any more pincers come out from the ceiling or the floor, but that could easily change soon enough. Wheatley immediatelyburied his sight back into Chell's stomach. "Change of plans, don't move, don't move!" He exclaimed, shivering slightly out of fear once more. They were virtually helpless now against whatever method the machine was going to do to them. The only thing Chell could hope for was if her death was swift.

But her thoughts changed once she heard the voice.

"Ugh..."

To their surprise, the tone was _not_ menacing and masculine. Instead, it was feminine with the tone of a woman in her 30's. "W...what happened...?" She muttered, not bothering to raise her head up just yet. The sound of machinery groaning and moving into place signaled that she had not gained full control of her motor functions yet. "Pain... Malignancy... Goodbye..." She didn't even seem to be completely aware of her surroundings either, ignoring the two other people who were now surprised at how she was acting.

"Uhm..." Wheatley muttered. "She was talking like a guy for a second there, and now she's talking like a girl? I don't remember her having that function."

"Maybe that's because she never had one like that."

Immediately, Chell's eyes and Wheatley's optic snapped up towards the ceiling at the sound of, meeting the gaze of another Core as it stared back at them with its own purple eye. His own blue eye brightened in recognition. "Morality!" He exclaimed happily, spinning around a little in excitement. "Your appearance is quite sudden, but it's so _good _to see you again! How have you been? How's the rest of the Cores doin'?"

Morality's eye crinkled into a smile. "Oh, _me_? I'm doing pretty fine so far..." However, her voice turned a bit irritated, and she glared off to the side for a moment. "And that's considering a while back, I had to completely re-fix the turret production line thanks to the shennanigans of _someone _lurking around back there-"

"I'msorrywedidn'tmeanto-!" Wheatley immediately blurted, stopping her within her tracks.

"Wait a minute...what do you mean by-" This confused statement was followed by an angry glare that made Wheatley's pupil shrink in fright, his body shaking again. "You mean to tell me that _you _and the _test subject _were the reason why I had to spend _hours_ trying to fix all of that damage? I can't believe you! Do you have _any _idea at how much I _stressed _myself trying to look over everything? I'm surprised I didn't fry my own body instead of having someone doing it for me this time!"

"W-wait a minute, Moral, I can explain-"

"Explain _nothing_!" Morality exclaimed indignantly. "You two have to get on my nerves so much, it makes me want to-"

Unfortunately, she had been jerking around so much in her rant, she didn't notice that she was slipping off of her management rail until-

_POP!_

"Oh, Go_aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah_!"

"Morality-!"

_THUNK!_

Unfortunately, Chell, who had been staring on in what seemed like a mixture of disbelief and amusement, had to take the blunt of 15-pound sphere of metal colliding with her face. Her body immediately jerked up, and Wheatley let out a startled yelp as he fell off of Chell and rolled a small distance away. "Oh, come on, now I can't see a thing!" He whined, attempting to turn himself back around in order to face them again.

Now the woman was clutching both of her hands in her face, rocking back and forth while wailing silently in pain, and both Cores were now laying on their sides on the floor.

"...ow...ok..." Morality muttered to herself, blinking a few times. "Not the best idea I ever had..." She focused her gaze onto the master AI, widening slightly as she saw her body raise itself with a final shudder. "Ah! I see you're back to the land of the living." She remarked cheerfully. "Hope being asleep wasn't too bad for you."

"...you!"

Surprise fell upon Chell once again as she saw GLaDOS re-coil upon focusing a yellow optic onto the purple Construct, that one word expressing the shock she felt upon the sight. Morality was unphased by the outburst, only giving a slight chuckle. "Yeah. How has one of my most stubborn children holding up? You know... besides the fact that you were nearly taken over by a rogue virus and all."

What she said caused the AI to stare at her intensely, her voice dripping with aggravation. "Firstly, I am certainly _not _your child, you tumor." She said in disgust. "Secondly, I find it in your best interest to tell me what you know about that disgusting parasite. Otherwise, I'll make sure that you end up with a more torturous death than what _she _gave you."

Morality sighed in disdain. "Ugh... it's _just _like you to be so harsh." She complained. "I try to be nice, and yet you still don't bother listening to a thing I say. Sometimes, it feels like I'm talking to a brick wall-"

Abruptly, she was cut off when the floor pincer arose from the ground once again. Her eye widened as she found herself grasped and yanked off of the ground, the claws squeezing her. She let out a squeak of pain as she was brought upwards until she was brought face-to-face with GLaDOS once more. This brought Chell to alarm, and she instinctively tried to get up, only for the pain to shoot through her body and throw her back down to the ground again. She could only grit her teeth and stare at the scene before her.

Wheatley's voice wasn't helping any. "Hey, what's going on?" He asked, nervousness taking over his voice. "I still can't bring myself up to see! Morality, are you OK over there?"

As Morality wormed within GLaDOS's grasp, the master AI took on a more cold, amused tone. "On second thought, maybe a torturous death for you is just going to give me a headache in the long run. I think I'll just crush you here and now."

"Y...you can't kill me..." Morality managed to get out, staring at GLaDOS with what could've passed off as a weary grin. "I...know everything you want to...kill me, and there's nothing that can tell you about the parasite... as well as _Caroline_..." The grin seemed to widen even more when she saw GLaDOS jerk slightly at the mention of the name. "There'll be nothing to satisfy your need to know, to silence that nagging voice at the back of your databanks. A...are you going to risk that...?"

It took a few moments. Then, GLaDOS allowed the pincer to release, dropping Morality back onto the floor in a position where the two AI could make eye contact with each other.

"Tell me everything you know... and I mean _everything_."


	9. Chapter 9

**STALEMATE UNRESOLVED**

**Author's Notes: **Apparently, the site decided to crap out on me and cause this chapter to be posted a day late. Awesome sauce.

All right, for the ones who haven't seen my journal on DeviantArt, I plan on doing stories revolving around certain Half-Life 2 mods. Sure-to-be stories include Nightmare House 2, Minerva: Metastasis, and maybe even Underhell. Of course, that won't mean I won't divert from Portal entirely, as there will be some side stories and even a sequel to Stalemate Unresolved involved. I hope you guys look forward to it. I certainly am!

Now that the news is out of the way, it's time to move onto this final chapter! Enjoy, read, review, and subscribe! (Though maybe not in that exact order).

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><p>There was a tense moment of silence between the two AI as they stared at each other. Then Morality spoke first. "Oh, don't worry." She re-assured GLaDOS, giving a nod to emphasize. "I have no reason to hide anything. But, before I do that..." She swung her optic backwards in a glancing look towards Chell, who was observing the scene quietly. "I would like you to give that woman over there some medical attention. I can't really explain, knowing that there's someone injured on the premises."<p>

This caused GLaDOS to look up at the test subject, causing the latter to tense up involuntarily. It was clear that the AI would rather be destroyed than help someone that was considered a bitter adversary to the end. As a matter of fact, it would be better for the human to just wither and die right where she was. Even she could admit that Chell was a tool for science to the very end. There were many more where she had come from, ready to be tested and then thrown aside when their usefulness had run out. Chell was a human, after all... and humans were ultimately expendable.

Two things were stopping her from following through with her plan.

One was the fact that it was _Morality _who had told her to do so. Somehow, this mere Personality Construct knew more than she did about the situation, and that was sparking an agitated envy within the master AI. If she allowed Chell to die, Morality would withhold the vital information that would ease her own situation, even when threatened with death. Despite her status, GLaDOS was powerless to go against the demands that she was faced with. These thoughts were simply increasing the loathing feelings that she had towards one of her former tumors.

The second was what she had more difficulty explaining. It was as if she had Morality hooked onto her, plaguing her with words of how immoral her actions were. Every time she thought as her test protocol would allow for it, there would be a sudden feeling of discomfort. It didn't cause her physical pain, and it was quick to pass, but it was certainly _not _one of a good feeling. The closest thing she could describe it as was...

Regret?

Guilt?

Had she teeth, she would've gritted them at that very moment. Yes, _that _was what she was feeling, but she knew the emotions weren't hers. _Caroline _was using these feelings to inhibit her, and that made her feel so _restricted_. It was as if the scientists of Aperture were still alive and treating her like their very own pet! That alone made her want to flood the entire facility with neurotoxin out of instinct. But she knew better – that wouldn't solve her problems. If she wanted any chance of getting rid of the plaguing conscience, she would have to humor Morality and listen to the words that were spoken. It was a detour she never would've taken under normal circumstances... but for the moment, this was out of her control.

So, against her own wishes, Chell would be spared.

_DING!_

The test subject visibly relaxed, hearing the sound of the elevator.

"Huh? Wait, what was-" Wheatley began to say again, but stopped immediately. "...oh, wait! I can just turn my eye around, can't I?" From his face-down position, he swiveled his eye optic towards the direction in which the sound came from just in time to discover the elevator rising up from the surface.

GLaDOS directed a glance towards him, then towards Morality once more. "...the moron goes, too."

That made Wheatley jerk back towards his former position. "I'm _not a moron!_" He protested, though his tone sounded more complaining than indignant. "Seriously, how many times am I going to get called that in one day? Just spam the bloody word, why don't you? It's not like I have any feelings or anything- ah!" His rant was cut off as he found himself being lifted in the air once again, terror once again shaking his frame. "Wait nononono-!"

"_Quiet_." GLaDOS snapped. "As much as I'd really love to... I'm not going to kill you." She focused once more, and another pincer hovered over Chell. Knowing what was to come, the test subject didn't resist as the pincer closed around her mid-section and lifted her into the air. She did wince a little, the wounds still sensitive to the touch. "I just don't want you interrupting this...talk." She brought the pincers to the open doors of the lift, depositing them both. "You both will be taken to the Aperture Science Medical Bays, where you will receive proper treatment. Take care as to keep your violent behavior in check... otherwise..." Her last words seemed to carry themselves in a rather satisfied manner. "Forceful ejection will be necessary."

It was all too clear what she meant by "forceful ejection".

The lift shut before they could express their reactions to the threat, and the lift descended back downward into another part of the facility, leaving the two AI to themselves. Morality let out a sigh, directing her gaze back into the yellow optic of GLaDOS. "Have I ever told you that you act like a total sociopath?" She asked, slightly disappointed.

"I blame the scientists." GLaDOS retorted blandly. "Now, let's get to business..."

"Right..." Pausing for a moment to gather her words, Morality closed her optic again. "I'll start from the very beginning, back to where Aperture Science had first formed itself. Keep in mind though; this information was very vague in the logs that were given, so not all information will be coming from _me_. It started back in 1951, where Aperture's economic status was high and in the billions. The CEO Cave Johnson had acquired the skills of a young man named Stephen Martius. He was a rather nice guy, cooperative in his work and making a friend out of his workmates. But he had this awful drinking problem, getting drunk almost every weekend of the month." At this, she let out a sigh of resentment. "Sad that humans have to succumb to such dangerous desires, isn't it?"

"What was he in charge of?" GLaDOS asked immediately. She wasn't interested in the man's personality, but rather what influence did he have and what connection did he possess with the virus.

"He was one of the heads responsible for overseeing the designs of the Aperture Test Chambers." There was something the master AI would've immediately assumed to be a hint of disgust in her voice, but she didn't note it out loud. "He was particularly involved in the development of the hazards that tests subjects had to endure. The reasoning for it was to push them to their limit, to see how far their minds would go when put under stress. Some were able to cope. But others, as we both know, failed and lost their lives."

Morality opened her eye again, staring at even level with the yellow optic. "He was also pretty devoted to Johnson. He followed whatever order given to him by the CEO without question, berating and scolding others who had doubts against him. You couldn't blame him, either; Cave knew what he was doing, and despite his methods, he was one of the legs that kept Aperture standing tall and strong. It's only a shame that the business itself lasted only twenty years before it began to decline."

"You're telling me things that I already know." GLaDOS did not bother to hide the bitter annoyance she held towards the Core. "Stop wasting my time, or I may just be tempted to find another source to get the desired results from."

"I'm getting to that!" Morality snapped, glaring at the master AI for a moment. "Jeez, don't blow a circuit. Anyway, Aperture's decline had its various effects on the employees and staff. But the most notable ones, the ones completely devoted to this practice called science, had suffered the most out of it. Stephen was one of those fanatics. His drinking started to increase, and it wasn't long after that he began to contract a disease called Korsakoff's Psychosis because of his actions. When it came to his job, he was fighting on a thin line to stay in his position, as he was suffering from bouts of amnesia, mood swings, and surfacing blindness. But as much as he could fight for his right to stay in the game, he was slowly losing his own sanity as well."

She closed her optic again, closing her eye and taking in what seemed like a deep breath. "This next part's pretty heavy...maybe not for you, but I found it somewhat disturbing..." She muttered. "As the disease progressed, there was the symptom of using made up events to fill in blanks in his memory that progressed the most. With this, he "conditioned" himself to believe that Cave was somehow communicating with him via a mental link. This persona of Cave was starting to influence his actions, increasing the devotion he had to the real Cave into an _obsession_. In turn, this caused him to grow a deep animosity towards Caroline, Cave's personal assistant at the time."

"Let me guess..." GLaDOS remarked dryly. "Stephen attacked Caroline."

"Mhm. Managed to trap her in Cave's office when he wasn't around. Would've killed her too, had it not been for security hearing the noise and stopping Stephen in time. But by this time, Aperture was getting into trouble with the law because of its unethical experimentation, and despite his insanity, Cave feared turning Stephen into the police due to the risk of leaking the truth out. So he had the guy locked up in his very own personal cell. No treatment for his illness, no sympathy... _nothing_. They just locked him up and let his mind rot away..."

Was GLaDOS actually hearing _venom _within Morality's usually kind demeanor?

"You sound as if you care for this complete stranger." She remarked.

"Well, _maybe I do_!"

The vicious, condemning reply actually made the master AI re-coil out of shock. But Morality continued, clearly indignant at GLaDOS's cold statement. "They treated this man like an _animal_! Locked him in a cell, threw away the key, and left him to die! Doesn't that mean _anything _to you?" This was followed by a sharp glare, and for a machine, the frustration was very clear. However, GLaDOS was quick to return it, staring just as intensely as Morality was.

"Why should it? They're all dead, aren't they?"

For a moment more, Morality continue to glare at the AI before turning her eye away. "...no. At that moment, there was nothing for him than death. And they even had to take _that _away from him..." She said bitterly. "When Cave Johnson had given the order for storing him onto a computer, they immediately began experimentation. _He _was the first guinea pig to go through the testing phases. As such, _he _was the first to go through the torture of being physically ripped away from his body and into a machine, the first Personality Construct. His particular function was that of an automaton hacker, designed to destroy and absorb vital data, override control of other machines, and cause extensive damage to electronic systems. It was a method that was originally planned to be used against Black Mesa, but it was later used on you to keep you pacified."

"..you mean to tell me..." GLaDOS now felt apprehension seep through her, the realization sending a chilling feeling through her.

"You couldn't remember the past life as Caroline..." Morality said solemnly. "...because he was stealing those memories and feeding them into himself. Through this, he had regained his own memories through you, as well as your memories of the staff. All of that was enough to drive him completely over the edge, and he developed a long-term hatred towards the staff and its works. The damage caused by Korsakoff's Syndrome was still there, the obsession with Cave growing even further until... he started to believe he _was _Cave Johnson, carrying out his wishes beyond the grave. The Malignancy Core, as what he was called, has developed a want for spreading Aperture's technological advancements beyond where it is... and he's attempting to control _you _in order to do so. Had I not stopped him and deleted the folder linking him to you, he would've went through with it..."

Infuriation swept through GLaDOS. This _Core _was attempting to control _her_? "Where is he now?" She asked nonchalantly, hidden anger tinting her tone.

"I...I don't know." Morality answered hesitantly. "But he's still within the confines of Aperture. For the moment, I don't know whether I managed to shut him down or not. But we all need to be ready for him by any means necessary. That might mean relying on your little..." Despite herself, she managed to chuckle. "..._monster, _if you will."

"I have no reason to." GLaDOS said coldly. "Maybe _you _took your death with a grain of salt. But I'm sure that _you _didn't have to relive yourself getting killed again and again for the duration of a comatose-induced sleep, did you?"

"But that's the very reason why you need her help!" Morality said earnestly, insistent on getting the point through to GLaDOS. "She was able to find a way to destroy _you_, the controller of this facility! If she was able to do that, then she could be useful in the event that Malignancy finds a way to override you again." She was nodding her optic up and down in excitement. "Look, if you find some way to convince her over to your side, I'm sure she'd understand! I mean, she trusted you enough to not resist when you were taking her over to the lift, right?"

That rendered GLaDOS silent. Now that she thought about it, Chell hadn't resisted at _all_, despite the fact that the AI had the chance to crush her right then and there. That confused her; she had hated her enough to kill her the first time. So why hadn't she held the same malevolence as before? Why had she allowed herself to fall into her potential killer's hands? Even now, the test subject was still in enemy territory, even as she was bandaging her wounds.

A sigh escaped Morality again. "I'm sure it's a lot to think about. Tell you what..." She motioned to the management rail she had unwittingly disengaged herself from. "Carry me up to the rail, and I'll let you alone to your thoughts."

She didn't have to say anything else. A pincer brought itself down, clasped Morality around it, and raised back up to the level of the rail. Then, it moved itself over, plugging Morality in before retracting back to the ceiling. "GLaDOS..." She muttered hesitantly. "Please be careful. I've had to save you twice from certain death, and I'm not going to be there forever. Don't be reckless about this, all right?"

If she had a mouth, she would've smiled at the annoyed glare GLaDOS gave her. "Don't talk to me as if I am your offspring." The master AI responded snidely, not bothering to look in her direction. "I am able to sustain myself against this _parasite_."

"I hope so. Goodbye, Caroline..."

Immediately, GLaDOS jerked up in order to face Morality once more. "What did you-"

But the Core was already gone.

Staring at where she had been for a moment, GLaDOS turned away to look back at the monitors. She flickered them back on, directing the camera feeds to the medical bay. She couldn't hear anything within, but she could clearly see Chell lying on her back on one of the surgical tables. Mechanical arms were hovering the ceiling, working in order to set the bones broken and wrap up any wounds that she sustained during Malignancy's brief take-over. At the rate, Chell would need some time to recover before being able to test once again. Of course, there was always the opportunity she could escape with the moron in tow and kill her... _again_. Logic demanded that they both be disposed of.

For some strange reason, Morality's voice was sticking in her head and preventing her from doing so.

She knew it was Caroline, having been fed Morality's words like a rat with cheese. However, this _wasn't _Morality she was dealing with anymore. She was dealing with a being that could adapt, someone that could feel all of the emotions that she herself felt and still be capable of defying her interests. Because of this, she was hesitant to simply discard it as she had done before. To kill both Chell and her friend would potentially be a risk move in the future – and with the things going on, it was something she needed to avoid.

For now, she would keep them.

For now, she would go against the wishes of science.

She flickered the monitor channels away from the surgery room and back to the testing chambers. She might as well keep a check on Blue and Orange to see what they were doing at the very moment. After all, they _were _supposed to be her substitutes. Despite the fact that they performed at standards less than what her expectations were used to, they weren't completely useless. Maybe in time, they would learn to adapt and evolve.

After all, Chell had evolved from a test subject to a murderer and monster in only a few hours.

So what was keeping them to be the perfect experiments that she ever had?


End file.
